Day 4 - Paths

There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.
Richard Bach

Something happened over the weekend I want to talk about, but before I do that I need to tell you about one of the events that led me to Day 1. About a week ago one of my buddies and I went down to the casino. I took my Christmas bonus money, which I had been leaving aside for a PS3; all I was waiting for was a sale. Long story short, lost my PS3 money.

And I thought about it a lot last week. I felt like there was a lesson to be learned there. And while I realize it could have just been a mistake on my part, a lot of people lose money at the casino, I tend not to think so; as the quote of the day says, there are no mistakes. What I took from it was that I had too much of a connection with material desires. Even with all the good reasons I wanted the system, it was still another thing I didn’t need. It was one of the biggest revelations that led me to this decision.

So this weekend, I see on slickdeals, that the exact PS3 I had been waiting for finally goes on sale. I go to the site, sign up, put in the promotion code, but as I’m going to check out I got a knot in my stomach, I was closing. (for those of you I’ve talked about my IGS practice with, you know what I’m talking about. For everyone else I’ll describe it like this: it didn’t feel good in my gut. I knew it was the wrong decision to go through with buying it). So I didn’t.

The next day I woke up, checked out the site and saw the deal had passed. And for some reason I felt relief at having missed it.

Now I don’t know why I wasn’t supposed to buy the system, it could be any number of reasons. I’m pretty broke right now, so it just would have been another thing on my credit card. Plus I had already squandered the money I was supposed to spend on it. Maybe it was a lesson in what I need vs. don’t need. Or maybe because I don’t have the money now, it’s a lesson to stay within my means. For all I know there could be a better deal coming soon that I will get for it and that’s the reason I wasn’t supposed to buy it.

The funny thing is when I went out to the casino that night last week, I was closing too. I was being told it was a bad idea but I ignored the feeling and went anyway. If I would have stayed at home, like my gut was telling me to, I still would have had that money and probably would have bought the system. At the same time I don’t know that I would have reached the same breaking point last week that led me to this blog and everything that comes along with it.

I guess what I’m saying is when we diverge from the path we’re supposed to be on, but find ourselves on a path that we are happy with, what does that say about our original path?