Lifestyle
Making Life A Little Less Boring: A Perspective Shift
Life is mundane.
Unless you are one of the lucky few whose job it is to explore the unknown.
Where your everyday life includes crouching behind the thickets to pry into the life of a gorilla for a living. You photograph a waterhole that quenches the thirst of African wildlife and admire the beauty of the scene before calling it a day.
In that case, I’ll forgive you for not understanding how bland life is for the rest of us. How it’s as flavorless and colorless as the cup of water beside me on my desk, rippling with each pen stroke.
The rest of us wake up every morning, our eyelids heavy with dread. We keep them closed against the beeping of our alarm clocks. We hope a few extra minutes of sleep will push away our stresses and immense workload. It does…for those few extra minutes at least. With the next beep of the alarm, we drag ourselves out of bed with just enough time to get to work on time. Faraway is the eager employee who applied for this job a couple of years ago.
The sounds of fingers typing on a keyboard, the screeching of the printer in the corner, and the distant chatter of your co-workers a few cubicles down fade into the background as your thoughts drift. You were—at one point—eager to be here. You were excited as you drove to this exact building and stepped through the front doors.
But the sky was bluer then. The grass was greener. The birds sang a little bit sweeter, too.
What changed?
You, certainly. Everyone changes, but is that all?
Your perspective changed.
With our great gift of adaptability, we grow accustomed to just about everything.
In a world of survival, this is a blessing. Perhaps it’s become a curse nowadays.
It’s a curse because it robs us of the one thing that we need for joy…
Wonder.
The world is amazing. The world is fascinating, enthralling, and mesmerizing.
Sure, it’s full of creatures we don’t understand. I mean fungi exist and despite all our scientific advancements, we are still perplexed by them.
But it’s amazing in smaller everyday ways, too.
Your world is amazing, but you forget to take notice.
You’ve forgotten that the device beneath your fingertips didn’t exist a decade ago. Through it, you have access to a plethora of information, entertainment, and connections. You could send a message to a stranger on the other side of the planet instantaneously. You might even gain a new friend.
With every inhale, you are bringing oxygen made by some plant who knows where into your body & possibly some bacteria, too. Don’t worry, though, because your incredible body with its teeny-tiny cells protects you from it.
You are an electricity generator as your every movement and every thought begins with a little spark that you made. Your spark.
The world is extraordinary. A three-year-old will tell you that, but you’ve stopped paying attention.
I know these words haven’t changed a thing. They didn’t make your job less sucky. They didn’t take away the responsibilities, problems, and sorrows that lie heavy on your shoulders.
Still, I hope that they encouraged you to close your eyes, take a breath, and find the wonder in your incredible everyday world.
