To be human
I’ve been trying to look at life differently. Not as a competition but more of a personal journey. It’s not easy as I’ve always been motivated by the pursuit for success, pushed to extremes in whatever I pursued when I was younger, whether that was sports or art or school. And then I envisioned myself finishing university and getting a good job and moving out and somehow ending up in Laguna Beach. I did (and still do) a lot of planning, often forgetting that life is right in front of me as I scratch out my 10-year plan and try to come up with a new one.
Perhaps the uncertainty of the future due to the pandemic, the impending climate crisis, and the rest of the issues that plague our world today made me take a step back and realize that what I was planning for may never come to actualization. It may be a dark way to look at it, but it was also freeing in a way.
Not to say I stopped planning altogether, but I just stopped putting an immense amount of pressure on myself. Planning is not the problem here – actually – it isn’t a problem at all. It’s forgetting that life is meant to be enjoyed in this current moment. It’s forgetting to take a moment to appreciate what you already have. Is it wrong to say I want to enjoy the short amount of time we have on this Earth?
Looking at life through rose-coloured lenses does not send me into a pit of oblivion, I know what is happening, I just choose to appreciate how lucky I am in this moment. For health, for family, for shelter.
One thing that has contributed to my sense of awe and appreciation is the act of de-familiarising the familiar. We can become quickly used to our daily routines, the meals we eat, the people we see, the things we do. It can become very bland and we start taking these small moments for granted. But what if we slowed down and really observed what we were eating, seeing, doing – like it was the first time we experienced it. These seemingly “mundane” moments would become magical in a way. The way the sun reflects on your bedroom walls, the breakfast you cook yourself, the dogs you run into as you leave your building. These are beautiful moments if you acknowledge them to be. It is possible to bring a sense of excitement and love into your life every day.
I used to listen to music on my morning walks with my dog, the volume pumped all the way up so I wouldn’t be able to hear a thing. Now, I listen to the birds chirping and the rustle of the wind amongst the trees that line the trails I walk through. I’m not trying to say this changed my life, but I never really appreciated how beautiful natural sounds were until I really listened. And not to say I stopped listening to music altogether, I just choose the right time for it (usually on my evening walks).
Despite all the hardships and challenges that the world faces, I’d like to think that love is what keeps us going. “Live, laugh, love” has never been more appropriate and I’m not even joking. Because love is the most powerful thing in the world, and to love is to be at your most human. Withholding love in hopes of remaining cool and composed are out, showing love to everything and everyone around you is in. Love is what binds us, what can change our world and the world of others around us. It is hope, it is optimism, it is everything.
This notion of love – giving it to myself and to others excites me. When I think of the short amount of time we actually have on this Earth, I think the best way one can possibly spend it is to spread this love. Give it to the birds on your morning walk, to the neighbours that always say hello, to your mother that never forgets to grab a treat for you on her shopping errands, to your sibling that sends a photo in hopes of making you laugh, to yourself when you go to bed a little earlier, to the moon that peeks through the clouds on late night drives.
Everything can be looked at as an act of love, even the simplest of acts. It is just a matter of changing perspective and showing gratitude.
Yes, sometimes the world seems like it’s going up in flames, but that’s why I think it’s more important than ever to show some decency to one another. Everyone needs more love today, that’s something you can never have enough of. I say it is time to embrace vulnerability and humility. Perhaps I’m being naïve, but I can say that this naivety is trying to make me into a better person and for that, I am grateful.