A thing that stuck with me after reading McKenna’s series was the idea of “letting go of the tiller.” Basically, this concept is to stop trying to control everything; that control is an illusion and if you are able to let go of that control, the universe will navigate you. He states that he doesn’t necessarily makes choices but has developed a sense of rightness and not so rightness and goes with the flow. This seems to have been successful for him, and numerous other reports I have read about since becoming intrigued with the subject.

The hindsight in my life has been that things have always seemed to go smoother the less I tried. When I would get to the point where my attitude was, “I don’t care; whatever happens, happens.” Then things would work out great and I would start to think, “wow, things are on the up and up, time to dig in again!” And that thinking marked the turn-around back to tougher times when things didn’t go my way. I’ve always felt I was going against the grain and the more I worked, fought, struggled, the worse it got. It was like quicksand and the more I fought, the quicker I sank. Right up until I said screw it and let go again. This cycle has been repeating itself my whole life…

This cycle is also a habit and it is very difficult to break a habit. I still wrestle with it. I have to constantly remind myself everyday to let go, stop trying to control things. Often times, I catch myself in the middle of controlling and have to stop. Sometimes I miss it altogether. Like most skills worth having though, I believe it takes practice and at some point my mind will be conditioned to maintain a constant level of flow.

The thought of this reminds me of Forrest Gump. Isn’t that basically how he operated? He just went with the flow and the universe took care of him. The path was laid out and he followed it. He didn’t try to forge his own route. He didn’t complain when things didn’t turn out as expected. In fact, he didn’t even “expect” anything – he just lived moment by moment, accepting that life is only what it is at this moment – no future, no past.

Forrest Gump is fictional but I’m sure we’ve all seen people (I know I have) that just seem to coast through life. The “lucky” SOB’s! They don’t seem to work or try for anything and they get the spoils while we toil and sweat and worry and want. The reality is, they probably aren’t lucky, they just let the universe take care of them. For most, this probably doesn’t happen consciously, but the habit developed and it works.

Maybe I wrong, maybe I’m right, but screw it, I don’t care. (See, that is me letting go of the tiller!)