Beauty in the Mundane
These stories are not exceptional.
The wise will leave written works, they say. Who is to tell who is wise? Age will have something to do with it. Thoughts and sights as well. When thinking about what to write, it’s easy to get caught up in what not to. Alternatively, one may choose to see the beauty that is everywhere. Every moment is precious.
Perhaps that is why it is so difficult to capture in words. It, that moment, not compelled. It just is — a piece of space in the middle of time.
Zooming in, those facts of existence remain with granular, meaningful details. The colors in the rug, the hum of the ice maker, the casual swish of the cat’s tail begging to be let outside despite knowing full well it is dark out. The visceral knowing that you are home and all is well.
A notion of being present is often associated with stillness of the mind, but the reverberation of the physical realm is the mind’s dance partner in this waltz of true presence. The phenomenon of consciousness is a gift. To grow on a rock, the perfect distance from a star such that water can exist and allow microscopic cells to form complex life is a miracle. For those creatures to perfect attaining food, maintaining shelter, and reproducing to such a degree of success that they develop an ability to think about other things is a wonder.
Today, we find ourselves in a world of technological servitude and societal machinations. Mother Earth continues to shrink as information transmits instantaneously throughout the planet. Formerly distant groups of people, unaware of the intertwined nature of our globe, become familiar. Hopefully, this agenda will catalyze global unity. A sense of oneness is paramount for us to thrive. This is true for all and one.
The essence of oneness - of my oneness, of yours - is our experiences within this phenomenon of consciousness. We need not be newsworthy to the modern media. A title or trophy does not render other stories unworthy of being told. Even though we exist among nearly eight billion others on our blessed rock, our worlds are, and should be, much smaller. Weigh your impact on those nearest and dearest to you. However fatalistic, it is one’s journey, and only one’s journey, that we carry through existence. That knowing releases one’s senses to the world for greater appreciation.
It is a marvelous way to live.
These stories are not exceptional. They do not suggest how or why to live. They do not convey groundbreaking philosophies of life. They are simply stories - trying to capture beauty in the mundane, solace in tribulation, opportunity in the now. Centuries of thinkers espoused the reality that our existence is the present moment. This is a collection of reminiscences of how I strive to embody that belief.
