look – life is amazing!

Look!

Life is amazing

But we don’t look. We live from habit. We’ve seen it all before. We don’t need to pay attention to what is here, around us, right now. But in this habitual way of living, we lose touch with the beauty of life, its wonders, its mystery.

For a moment, just a moment, imagine that you had not seen any of this before, that you have come to this beautiful planet from outer space. Would you wander around, daydreaming, ignoring what is around you? No! You would be like a small child: curious, curious about everything. You would be investigating, exploring. Every minutiae would have your attention. And rightly so. How amazing is a blade of grass?

You’ve probably seen many blades of grass and you don’t bother to look any more. This is the lazy, habitual way that we fall into. But take a moment to look at a blade of grass: its elegance, its colour; feel its texture. Even the greatest of artists would struggle to create such a masterpiece. And blades of grass are just one of the miracles that surround us. And there are thousands upon thousands, countless miracles, all around, every moment – the sun glinting off water; the smell of a rosebud; the feel of breeze blowing in the hair. It’s all a miracle. And if we can just, for a moment, forget that we’ve seen it all before, then in this moment we will be amazed, astounded, delighted.

We could never dream up life. Not in our most wild dreams could we come up with anything anywhere near as beautiful as life. Life is outrageously, shockingly creative. And it’s here for us to enjoy, without needing to earn it, without needing to struggle, without needing to be rich, without needing to spend money. All we need do is open our senses, as if we are a newborn.

Look around you, listen, smell, taste, touch. But don’t let your boring thoughts come in. Just indulge in the pure sensation of the moment. Every moment life is showering us with an abundance of delights. And all we need do to relish those delights is set aside our habitual mind. When those tedious, repetitive thoughts stop, for a few moments, then, without us doing anything else, life suddenly reveals itself in all its glorious mystery. Ahhh. 

Let’s rejoice in it. Let’s bathe in the wonders of life. We don’t need to understand it all. We don’t need to have clever theories. We don’t need to categorise everything. All we need do is enjoy it. So look, look at life with fresh eyes, for life is amazing!