I write to you today from a noisy apartment living room couch; one with the windows open and a clamoring of sounds crashing against the wind. I live on a busy street, something I never imagined doing as I love waking up to a quiet sun, cheerful birds and newly risen insects - never car engines, horns beeping or trucks racing. But...here I am, and I like it here.
There are large trees that camouflage the busy road from my second story apartment, which definitely helps the aesthetic of the place, just not when I'm sitting down to write. I can play my instrumental music as loud as I like, but the outside sounds still remain and my mind tends to drift out there to meet them, distracted and disobedient. Thus why this post is beginning with exactly what's been distracting me for the last half hour...because I haven't been able to come up with a more interesting or original introduction. But, let's see where this goes.
Lately I have all of these ideas for great blog posts; they come to me like items being launched mid air from the winds of a tornado, twirling and levitating in eye view and if I don't grab them as soon as they are within arm's reach, they suspend higher and higher until out of sight. Which in truth, is a metaphor for my life at the moment - I have all of these ideas and bursts of light that spin around me but I can never sit still for long enough to actually get hold of them.
I'm always running here and there, chasing the next big "to-do," grabbing a "quick" iced coffee and then on to the next thing! My days off until September are filled with parties, engagements, trips - all good things - but there's this static, hectic rush and I'm at the center of the tornado. People often look back at their younger years and perceive time as being more patient, stretched and unremitting, saying, "life was always simpler way back when..." And you know what? It was.
I didn't stuff every open moment with noise, people, things, and more notes on my To-Do pad. I embraced the solitude and the quiet. Now I pencil those things in on my planner and half of the time I actually do them. The other half I'm hastily cleaning my apartment before work, running out for meaningless errands, rummaging through social media, texting, overthinking, AmazonPrime-ing. There's always someTHING going on.
The interesting part of all of this is that we all have destinations and places we would like to be - we have dreams and questions to answers we don't yet have. We're all rushing to finally get to that place - the place that will make us happier, smarter, more beautiful, more conscious, more alive - but what we don't realize is that the only way to get there, is to be here now. In truth, there is no there. Because once you get to your there, there is going to be another there you wish to ascend to. And the list will continue on and on and on. There are hundreds of there's on your road to there.
The easiest way to get there, aside from all the appointment making, speeding around, coffee digesting, mindless errands, and endless chatter, is to allow yourself the space to be quiet and still. In the midst of all the chaos, you have yourself. When you can tap into that inner self - the breath, the rise and fall, the peace, the solitude - you will be there. All it takes is a single breath, a moment to allow yourself to breathe.
Take it. Hold it. Carry it with you throughout your day. And then take some more.
Here and there can be two in the same. Spend more time here and you'll certainly get there.
