By day, I design and study patterns and systems in the digital space; I am—quite passionately—a UX designer and strategist.
At night, as I think back on the day, I recall the feelings I felt, the conversations I had, the realizations and inspirations I reported and received. In my introspection, I find intangible but distinguished patterns and systems there too.
A pattern, whether inherited or created, runs like a quiet program in the background of reality. The program seems to have power over our experience, in the misfortunes we encounter, in the repeated relationship traumas, in the habits we cannot seem to shake.
This is my attempt to document and explain these repeating phenomena of emotion and how they all seem to point back to one steadfast urge: wholeness. A human’s deepest yearning is to be whole, and all of life, especially the most difficult parts, affords us the opportunity.
A change in any pattern can only be made once we’ve become aware of the pattern’s existence. Liberation comes when we perceive the program running.
Like when you lift a shining lightbulb lifted up over your head, and the shadows shift at your feet, so a widened view of a pattern brings different shapes of understanding. In this light, one can witness and examine which patterns serve wholeness, and which disintegrate.
This discussion of pattern is not about moral binaries, rather it is an exploration of oppositional truths:
A person’s will is both systematized and free.
We simultaneously yearn for and act in accordance with both our feral, individuated freedoms and our comforting social structures.
Humanity’s most pressing pain is a combination of the weaponization of science and the growing distance from our souls.
Polarity is the pulse of the universe; we can frame that pulse through the lens of fear, outrage, and “othering,” or we can root down in the inherent reciprocity of nature and find the harmony that is always available to anyone willing to ride a wave.
Join me for a righteous ride through the scintillating swirl.
In the meantime, tell your friends!