# Year of the ZAO - Day 164

> Everyone’s Enlightened (Even the Trolls)

**Published by:** [The ZAO Newsletter](https://paragraph.com/@thezao/)
**Published on:** 2025-06-13
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@thezao/year-of-the-zao-day-164

## Content

ZM happy floral friday. i’m on night shift so my schedule is shifted—but honestly, that’s opened up a different kind of headspace. the world’s quieter, the pace feels slower, and somehow that makes it easier to reflect. wavewarz was a blast today. the kind of messy, high-energy, nothing-goes-as-planned fun that reminds you why you keep showing up. And in the middle of all that energy, I kept thinking about a lesson I’ve always come back to—one that really lands when your days feel upside down, you’re juggling tech issues, and trying to make sense of half-finished thoughts in the group chat. It’s from Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: “Imagine that everyone is enlightened except you.” It sounds a little out there, but give it a shot. What if every frustrating or confusing person in your life was actually your teacher? What if their role wasn’t to irritate you—but to show you where you still need to grow? Today, when the stream started glitching and I felt that familiar tech panic creep in, I stopped and asked, “What is this trying to teach me?” The answer wasn’t “fix the settings.” It was, breathe. let go. stay with it. Even the chaos has value. Later, when someone in the WavewarZ chat dropped a cryptic comment that could’ve easily rubbed me the wrong way, I paused again. Maybe I don’t need to have all the answers right away. Maybe my job is just to listen and trust there’s something there. This is the Year of the ZAO, and that means showing up with curiosity—even when it’s hard. The post office line, the Discord reply guy, the lag spike mid-performance—it’s all part of the training. So here’s the mindset I’m practicing: They’re all enlightened. I’m just here to learn. – BetterCallZaal on behalf of the ZAO Team

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