Down Time

One week has come to an end, and another is just about to begin. The prior week was particularly challenging, due in part to 2 and 1/2 days of downtime on the company computer network. It seems like only yesterday that computers were mysterious magical crates kept deep within the walls of NASA, and University Research Laboratories, who's use was only for those ordained in the deepest secrets of technology. Today they have spread throughout our society and embedded themselves as a staple component of almost everything we do. There is nothing wrong with them per say; they have helped us to obtain knowledge, explore our physical universe, and communicate in ways that our ancestors could scarcely have imagined. This blog owes it's existence in part to the computer age. The downside however, is that we tend to focus on it as our sole source of knowledge.

I was in large part responsible for facilitating the upgrade that brought us down for those day's, and that meant (amidst other things) keeping people informed. Warnings had gone out weeks in advance and were repeated on a regular basis, but at last the day came to take things down. People were in panic, they bemoaned the absence of technology, and were oddly stunned when they realized that you can not use the network if it is down, such was there dependence on it. At a business level it was for many as if the world had come to an end.

In looking at those events, I can not help but notice the similarity to the way that many us tend to live our lives, developing dependencies on schedules, beliefs, ideas, and rituals. Like technology, none of those things are inherently bad. The problem arises when we become so set in a pattern, that we fail to keep our minds open to greater possibilities, or take for granted the blessings that the universe bestows upon us.

A program is used in Astral Projection called the "Brain Wave Generator". It works by using certain frequencies of sound to place a person in a state suitable for Relaxation, Meditation, or Astral Projection. I have not used the program yet, but it is widely reported that a given setting is only effective for about a week before a new configuration must be used to achieve the desired effect.

The similarity between the "Brain Wave Generator" and peoples dependence on an office network may not be apparent at first, but both are the results of becoming set in a pattern of thinking or acting. Fortunately the Universe likes to throw in a few downtimes in our lives, where the old way of doing things no longer works. Sometimes they take the form of a crisis, and at others a feeling of dissatisfaction, or "being in a rut". I have come to understand these downtimes for what they are, a sign from the Universe that it is time to learn something new, perhaps to abandon an outdated or poorly conceived idea or belief, or to explore talents or ideas that have been neglected a little too long.

The next time you have a "Downtime", consider asking this question; "What is the Universe trying to teach me"?