Open road

©Matteo Paganelli

There is a risk with being too comfortable with where you are. You become too complacent and too lazy to budge. Like still water in a swamp, you become stagnant as the world around you evolves.

The problem is, we too often take things for granted. A situation to which we’re accustomed does not necessarily mean that it will forever remain so. Circumstances change, often in the blink of an eye, yet no matter what we tell ourselves, we’re never wholly prepared for any of it.

Confusion is followed by an anguish of how to proceed. We need a plan. That’s what we pressure ourselves to have. But life doesn’t always work in a scheduled manner. Sometimes we just need to take things as they come.

Consider this, however: Without a destination, you’re never late. Because you have nowhere precise to go. You’re always exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Or like the cat in Alice in Wonderland said: If you don’t know where you’re going any road will get you there.

Perhaps we need to see the positive in every situation. A step-back always rattles you to change.

We simply need the courage to move ahead with more experience and determination than before.

Don’t be afraid to start over; you might like your new story.

More time than life

In a world of rapid developments, how easily do we take things (and people) for granted? We go to bed certain we will wake up the next morning; we postpone our schedules sure that we’ll have time later on; we procrastinate because we are confident we’ll complete our must-do’s some other instant.

But what if there wasn’t time?

There is a Mexican saying: “there is more time than life” (“Hay más tiempo que vida”) usually told to those who are constantly stressed and complain too much about not having time to fulfil specific goals. Loosely translated, it is that cliché we so often hear: “seize the day”.

It’s the prompt to take each moment for what it is, and realise it to the fullest. Do what you can now, experience every emotion to the utmost, because – really – who knows when you’ll get another chance, or what the next minute may bring.

And to be honest, a minute is a long time to waste. (Just try counting it while doing a plank).

Nothing Normal

© Marie Gail Stratford

There was a time when you’d find a never-opened fully-filled water bottle and take it to give to the first person in need you’d encounter a bit further down your way.

There was a time when you wouldn’t think twice before entering a crowded bus, or a shopping store.

There was a time when hugs were abundant, and felt as warm and loving as a meeting with friends.

There was a time when our concern was to which part of the world to travel next.

Nothing seems normal anymore.

Perhaps because that past ‘normal’ was too often taken for granted.

Also part of Friday Fictioneers

Those small things

There’s a saying that “the best things in life aren’t things”. Sometimes, they aren’t. But sometimes it is remarkable how the smallest of things can make you feel all warm inside, and genuinely happy.

We live in a world of plenty – at least the lucky Western part of the globe – that we often forget what it means to have certain things. Things that we often take for granted, like clean water, clean sheets, and a house full of loved ones to return to each day.

And sometimes it doesn’t take much to make someone smile. All you need is the knowledge that you have people who love you stand by you, ready to support you no matter what.

All it takes is for you to see your work published, instantly filling you with the gratification that you are doing something worthwhile. And that work is exactly what enables you to buy something useful – like a new tablet you’ve so longed for – that makes you beam up like a lightsaber at the very sight of the screen turning on, and overwhelming you with a warm feeling of satisfaction and joy.

It is the things like entering a room and having a dog or cat run up to you with eyes gleaming and a tail wagging with joy. It is sitting on the couch rolled up in a blanket watching a movie with someone you love. It’s playing board games on a rainy afternoon with the fire crackling. It’s receiving an unexpected (but very welcome) present.

So I guess, most of the times it is the smallest of things that make life matter. After all, that is the point of living a life of purpose, rather than one of material goods. And it is the very difference between living a life and merely surviving it.