Bookmark #654

Done long enough, everything becomes a habit, even thoughts—especially thoughts. I look around, and I say there is nothing to see, and suddenly, the world caves into itself, and I am standing in the centre of vast nothingness. And when I wonder at the tiniest things, the whole world seems to overflow with little joys as if it is creating it all for me, personally. This is a trick, of course; learning this takes us more years than we would like to imagine. It should be easy, and it should be simple, but those two words are seldom in the same sentence, and rarely ever do they describe the same thing. It is simple to feel joy in the smallest things possible; it is rarely as easy.

This world has enough to offer me that I could never see it all, yet one does not need to travel around the world to feel alive. It is often simpler to just sit and notice a chameleon wandering about the plants outside your home. To sit and see it with honesty in your heart—the way it moves its head at the slightest of noise, its slender, alert eyes, the little spikes all over its body, reminders of history we were never a part of. Or to look at a flower and not just claim its colour but genuinely look at it. We must refrain from the opportunity to describe the world. Adjectives are a dime a dozen; there is only a shortfall of wonder.

It is not that the world has fewer wonders to offer; it is that we often stop looking. The intricacies in the neighbourhood of a living, breathing person are enough to change their whole perspective on things, but again, it is rare that simple and easy are found in the same sentence.

Entrapped in all of this, in all the offerings of the world, and in the dearth of experience simply because we refuse to open our eyes, we live our lives in longing. Longing for that distant island, longing for luxuries we cannot make sense of, but the person who lives through a sunny afternoon with all their heart has no use for a billboard advertising the next getaway. But they must begin doing it, and then, they must form a habit.

It is simple—you must only do it repeatedly; the jury is still out on whether it is easy.

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