We Shall Shape the Storm

Lost in the undertow of sad consumption, we trade life for content.
Our creativity for conformity.

One aspect of divine image bearing is the essence of an entire ocean contained within single drops.
We are made. We are measured.

We can be the onion plant who is old in nine weeks. As Og Mandino teaches us: or we can be the olive, king of the trees, who takes decades. One is short-sighted, quick to wither; the other endures.

Consider what we consume.
It’s a choice, conscious or otherwise.

The fragments of knowledge, compressed into minutes, value extracted from fleeting moments.
And what if the value was never there?
What if it’s just AI Bigfoot? It’s like laughter as a mirage in the desert. It’s an illusion we convince ourselves quenched a thirst.

But let us assume the content we consume has value.
Yet how much of it survives?

Did it weigh heavy in your hands, press upon your heart, cost you a moment of rest?
Or did it crumble to dust before it could matter?

Did it shape your plans, or slip through the cracks unnoticed?
Like so much seems to.

I was ten minutes into Episode 952 of Modern Wisdom with Alex Hormozi. One moment stopped me. It led to this reflection. Let me take you back to where I was.

Alex says, “The universe is undefeated.”
The host, Chris Williamson, replies, recalling his former Twitter bio: “locally reversing entropy,” which Alex remembers.
Chris continues, “You have this force in the universe, entropy, that inevitably destroys not just everything you care about but anything anyone could have created or cared about. And for a few decades, you get to stop the most powerful force in the universe.”

Then they continue into normalization of all things to the environment mentioning a piece by Jeff Bezos.
The point is: we get to fight the cosmic regression to the mean.

Despite all the forces, no matter how eternal they are, they do not have to succeed. Even if they fiercely seek to diminish us, we get a choice. This holds true while we yet draw breath.

So, I paused it. Began the process of retention.
Considered for a moment the typical content one consumes.
Then looked at how little of this podcast I had consumed before feeling a value add.

I firmly believe value is often given away with intention, much like the first ten minutes of this podcast.
And as they’re pointing out, a proper perspective is critical.

It becomes a matter of retention, integration, and action. Often immediate action in the modern era.
These things are what allow us to hold against the winds and weeds that seek to diminish us.

Only in germination are we supposed to be tenderly allowed to grow.
After maturity, we must learn to endure the icy breeze with those as tall as us.

Some storms break us – though rarely.
Others, we simply survive, teeth clenched, shoulders hunched, waiting for the calm.
But there are storms we shape.
We harness their force, redirect their path, rise within them.

Like trees rooted deep, we bend but do not break.
We hold fast. Not because the wind is kind, but because we’ve learned to stand.

To shape the storm is not to control it, but to meet it with intention.
To let it carve us, not consume us.

It is a gift, one of many, waiting for those who dare to accept it.