When 'going with the flow' just isn't joyful enough

A few people have asked me about the title of this blog. Why 'go-go' with the flow, they ask, and not just 'go'?

'Going with the flow' is a notion most of us are familiar with, even if we're not very good at actually doing it. Going with the flow means taking life as it is, accepting what comes your way, not fighting battles that can't be won and not yearning for things that can't be had.

It's a wise idea that goes back thousands of years. There's no surer way to make yourself unhappy than to want things (that's possessions and events) that you don't have. Lao Tzu may have been the first to put it into words, in the Taoist classic the Tao Te Ching:

"There is no disaster greater than not being content; there is no
misfortune greater than being covetous... In being content, one will
always have enough" (45:105).

Now, I'm not the best person to come to if you want to learn more about going with the flow. Try websites like this instead. I often find it hard to accept things that come my way - and I'm especially likely to stomp and fight if I think something is unfair. That's one reason I didn't call this blog just 'Go with the flow'.

You see, I believe in 'the flow'. I'm quite passionate about it, really. I won't try to define 'the flow', here, because that would lead me into deep philosophical discussion, and it's too early in the morning for that! Please just let me get away with using shorthand for now and saying that I mean some kind of interconnected everythingness.

My important point is that I believe we are the flow and we make the flow.

I'm sure I don't need to work hard at convincing anyone that there is a lot of shit around. That was the subject of my very first post, and it's the reason I started this blog. But the thing is, I think that all this unpleasantness - all the war, famine, violence, cruelty, nastiness and unhappiness - is doing the psychic equivalent of polluting the flow.

We're all swimming here together, I'd like to say, so don't piss in the water!

And because I believe that we all create the flow we're floating in, I want to do my bit to make it as joyful and good as possible. I want to add laughter to the Universe, and beauty, and usefulness, and hope.

For me it's not good enough to just 'go with the flow' - I want to help that water sparkle!

So now I'm off to enjoy the sunshine, and do some go-going in today's flow! And I hope you can do the same!



Flow x