Lately I have been challenging myself to see each moment with new eyes... It is so easy to settle into a routine of the mundane day to day, but redirecting my perspective to look at the same things I see everyday through a new lens has helped immensely. Because nothing is mundane until I make it that way, and nothing is ever routine unless I allow it to be. And, while routine is comfortable, it breeds complacency...
I used to get jealous and and even angry about other people's 'magnificent' experiences... then I realized all I have to do to make my own experiences amazing is to relish in the moment... to drink in every moment for the amazing glass of opportunity that it is. Sunshine, or gray day... middle America or across the world... there is so much to experience and take in everywhere. The happened upon conversations on the street that start with a hullo and spin into a vibrantly woven tapestry of story and connection are right in front of us-just waiting to be lived.
I sat down to lunch yesterday with an acquaintance... something I NEVER do (sit down for lunch). Usually I grab something for take away at the local deli and rush back to my desk so as not to 'waste' a moment of the hectic work day. But, for some reason yesterday, I was compelled to take a seat at a table with a girl I had only met in passing before. At the start I thought I would just inhale my soup as fast as it would go down without injury to the still healing throat and dash off, back to my desk, having been gone not long enough for my boss to even notice my absence. But, as I sat across from that stranger I was drawn into the conversation...the more she spoke, the less I felt the pressure of the ticking clock staring me down from the wall. We chatted about jobs and families, experiences, art, expression and life in general. She shared pieces of her story, and I parts of mine. We may have sat together for five minutes or twenty...I don't know really, as I completely lost track of time...
We stood up from our lunch and walked out of the shop, and somewhere the conversation transitioned from the friendly, but somewhat surface topics one might find themselves conversing about with a stranger to a deeper, more revealing nature. We shared and connected over our respective experiences with personal growth and awareness, I found myself actually putting a voice to things I have been chronicling on this blog, and it was invigorating to ping at the same level with another human about the discoveries I have been making in my own life. I have always found it easier to explain myself in written word rather then in verbal conversation... when speaking I often stumble over my own thoughts and get wires crossed in my head, so listening and adding a piece here and there made the conversation much less easy and opulent.
As the conversation same to an end, having both shared out lot of emotional and personal bits, we realized that neither of us knew one another's name. I was actually grateful she didn't know mine, as I had once been introduced to her and long since forgotten her name, but remember her face. She remarked at how amazing it was to have such a beautiful conversation without even knowing the other's name and I confessed my attaching little importance to names, that it is a person's face and the visceral response I get from it that ruminates with me and she agreed. We parted ways, and I went back to work, envigorated by the human connection I would have otherwise missed had I not taken two steps off my routine path from the counter to the door.
