I was talking to some people over the weekend about the eternal debate on whether our lives follow a path, or whether we create our own reality. I think the answer lies somewhere inbetween, but closer to the latter. The former used to dominate my belief system, but the latter has taken its place, given that I now understand that seemingly insignificant decisions have a cascading impact on the collective, or what we tend to view as significant.

Perhaps its the usual ‘wisdom’ of having spent time on this planet, in this form and this reality, realising that every single choice I’ve made has changed my reality, completely. Every single decision, no matter how small, has a profound effect on reality; parting ways with a lover, throwing a paper wrapper on the street, choosing to be offended by an innocent and harmless comment, allowing others to take advantage of your good nature; the list is infinite.

Don’t be fooled by the apparent insignificance of an event. Nothing is insignificant. Everything is inextricably linked, including you and I. Decisions you make affect my reality and vice versa. The Butterfly Effect, related to Chaos Theory comes to mind; the notion that small events create, or contribute to vastly greater ones. A butterfly may flap its wings on one side of the planet and set-off, or contribute to a chain of events which collectively results in a tornado on the other side of the globe.

The aforementioned notion, a micro-view of the complexity of all the processes which occur and make up our reality, is so beautfully simple. It’s these snapshots of the collective that can give us blinding clarity, but only when we’re able to detach from our propensity to believe that we’re separate from everything.