When I originally set out to write this blog I did so knowing that it would never be done on any regular schedule. I also knew it shouldn’t be singular in its scope. One of the reasons I refused to be bound by those kinds of boundaries was because I saw the problems I have had with structure when I had started other blogs, or when I wrote for various publications with deadlines. And one thing had become crystal clear to me from those experiences: Being locked into a single topic, or timetable is the quickest way to destroy creativity. Inspiration can’t be shoehorned into a schedule. In fact, inspiration was to be The Middle Way’s only guiding principle.

My mistake began when I selfishly assumed that since this is my blog, I could write about whatever the hell I wanted to. And while that’s true to some extent, there’s an inherent problem with that assumption. The cycle of the written word isn’t complete until it has been read, therefore the writer is no more important than the reader in this format.

And so, The Middle Way suddenly took a sharp left turn, and went political for a while. The problem is that when people subscribe to a blog that professes to be focused on spiritual principles and the path of least resistance, they probably didn’t do so hoping to see if someone figured out a way to make politics a means to that end. Not to mention there’s no shortage of political bloggers in this world, so my adding to the vitriol instead of offering a solution was nothing short of base treachery. For that, I feel I owe many of my readers an apology.

Most of us spend our days in Saṃsāra without being aware of it. Once we begin to seek enlightenment, we find that our suffering is at its most palpable just prior to our awakening. For myself, I find that when my mind is finally able to break the surface, only then am I able to observe out of what destructive cycles I had been reacting.

And it’s that that realization that lead me to this post. Because, awake or asleep, there’s one thing I know for sure. Going forward, most of us are going to need ways to accept the things we can’t change, to courage and presence of mind to change the things we can, and the knowledge and compassion to know the difference.