How to Listen Beforehand

You ok? You look a mess. Well, you knew this meltdown was coming. We all did. There were signals and patterns and that was a massive red flag back there, but no. Some people don’t listen. Well, don’t just stand there looking at everybody else’s better deal, you need to pay attention now before the next thing grabs you, and it will grab you. Like a fist around your heart, squeezing. So listen up. Hwat! Pay attention.

Pay attention in advance of what? What is it that’s coming? That’s the question. The answer depends on what the meaning of the word is, is. If is means is and never has been, that is one thing. If it means there is none, that is a completely true statement. If is means now, there is nothing in any one given teeny moment of now, none, there’s no time for it, so if you ask a question in this version of the present tense, you will get nothing. You need a whole different kind of present tense for your inquiry, something like a byð, which is a very useful contraction of is was and ever shall be. There’s more going on in this kind of is, a tapestry of past and present with just a splash of future. You can’t reach the future at all from our now, but with byð you can see the ever shall be part of things very clearly, its complexity and pattern.

What is the one thing that ever shall be? You know the answer to this riddle. It’s change.

Change into what? That’s the tricky part. What to listen for. There’s so much noise you can’t hear what’s what. So what byð? What is the current state of your is was and ever shall be? What is it doing right now that it does all the time? Pay attention, very close, sidle right up because that’s where you’ll find the anomalies. They’re there. Small perturbations to the system. The usual states of being take forking paths, find those bifurcations and pay attention. Hear it? It’s subtle, sensitively dependent on the tiniest flutter of difference, listen for it, let it attract your notice. Find the figure in the carpet, figure out what it is telling you, and once you hear it, flow with it or you’ll end up in need again, and need has no flow at all. Need clumps you into a stasis you’ll need help getting out of. Need is the hardest of fates.