My decaf coffee gets auto-delivered to my mailbox once a month. The next episode of TV on Hulu queues up well before the current one is over. Apps and websites “conveniently” choose my settings for me. So much about my neighborhood, my city, and my country is not only outside my control, but also depends upon my ignorance and apathy toward it. And of course, my attention drifts to my phone throughout the day without my conscious permission.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the spiritual practice of choosing. And I’m still hung up on this: observing how helpless so many of us feel even as we enjoy far more prosperity and far better tools than ever before. I think it has something to do with the felt sense that choices are also being taken from us somewhere out there, long before we’re ever presented with them, while our ability to make the choices we do have is overwhelmed and undermined.
While I’m still observing and experimenting, a few ideas for reclaiming our choices—and thus, our lives.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Creaturely to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.