JUST A THOUGHT: We Don't Need to "OWN" the Experience

Photo by Alps Patel on Unsplash

We can enjoy something without needing to own it.

This is a radical idea in a world which is built on capturing the experience of everything to the point where we're not living the experience in the moment because we're so busy trying to 'save' it - take a picture, video, etc - experience it later but whatever you do, don't experience it now.

Life as we know it would end if we all stopped feeling the need to own (read: consume) because our society is built on nurturing the idea of 'owning' an experience. (As if such a thing was possible.)

If you enjoyed the concert / sporting event /exhibit, then buy the t-shirt / mug / keychain / foam finger or whatever other branded memorabilia might be available because it will help you capture the feeling. (It won’t, but we’ll make you believe it will).

Years of consuming has taught me that no thing can capture the feeling of a particular moment.

The moments of our lives are meant to be enjoyed, well, in the moment, and then let go.

We enjoy the moment and then LET IT GO so that we can make way for the next moment. That's what we forget - that we have to let go of one thing to make room for another.

The reason we ALL struggle with this, is that we think if something made us happy today, then the exact same thing / person / circumstance will make us happy again tomorrow. That is why we try to hold on.

But we forget that every day we awake, we're a slightly different version of our yesterday selves.

Who we are today might not be made happy with the same things as the who we were yesterday. And that's why we have to learn to gracefully let go and not try to own anything or anyone.

We need to keep our hearts open to the possibility that perhaps what makes us happy today may no longer make us happy tomorrow.

And if the exact same thing is meant to make us happy again tomorrow, then we need to trust that it will still be there, without us trying to capture it, hold onto it, own it.

Life is flow; trying to "own" an experience stops flow.

Holding loosely and letting go when needed allows life to unfold.

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