All living things are in constant interplay with environmental feedback systems. Networks connect with networks in a dynamic web of interrelated events. Sometimes they balance and sometimes they fall out of equilibrium. When the environmental interplay is balanced, we are teased by stability. It’s when things fall out of balance that adaptation comes into play.
Our relationship with the random twists and turns of our ecosystem presents coping challenges day and night. It’s not always a test of your ardor that follows a trauma. It might be as inconsequential as whether to take the highway or the side streets. Sometimes it’s a toss-up decision about whether or not to attend a party.
Whatever the narrative, the chain of events that follows is some form of a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ book. What happens next will likely be second-guessed with the musing, “I wonder what would have happened if I had turned left instead of right…”
Life unfolds in a continuous sequence of decisions that spark a succession of new options.
Consider the seemingly infinite spectrum of variables that might be playing out in anyone’s personal environmental equation.
- Bracing for severe weather
- Making a job change
- Incurring an injury or illness
- Losing a loved-one
- Inheriting a financial windfall
- Getting a puppy
- Being lied to
- Experiencing a transcendent spiritual connection
- Witnessing violence
- Seeing a rainbow
- Moving to a new town
- Falling in love
- Performing for an audience
- Experiencing ridicule
- Traveling internationally
- Learning of an infidelity
- Earning a black belt
- Seeing a birth
- Seeing your favorite band
- Losing your purse or wallet
- Witnessing a death
- Beating cancer
- Having a secret divulged
- Being moved by art or music
- Causing an auto accident
- Getting lost
- Reuniting with an old friend
- Discovering a suicide
- Paying back a favor
- Getting arrested
- Connecting with a mentor
- Enduring an unresolved argument
- Being offered help
- Receiving recognition
- Getting a hug
- Discovering a solution
- Experiencing an epiphany
- Regaining balance
- (fill in the blank _______)
The list goes on. Each example sparks emotion (from awe to despondency) and activates a set of coping strategies to celebrate, mitigate, investigate, savor, solve, repair, or process that moment’s event. We then learn, grow, adapt, and steer our way toward whatever comes next.
Yes, change is coming with each passing moment. The problem-solving challenges blend with the licking of wounds and the gifts of awe that each change triggers. Choose your own adventure!
