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Be Surprised

Be surprised by something every day. Not just for the sake of novelty, for simply seeking variety is a recipe for living superficially and being perpetually distracted, always needing another hit.

Be surprised by something every day.

Find that exciting moment when you get a completely new perspective.

Like a movie that reveals something at the end which changes the way you think of everything you’ve seen before.

If you’re not having these moments often, find some new inputs.

— How to Live, by Derek Sivers

You may walk the same path a hundred times, missing the most impressive of little details, until one day, the sunlight will hit something otherwise mundane in such a way that it can’t be ignored. Has this always been here, you’ll wonder. Of course, it has.

I’ve walked through neighborhoods where houses seemed to appear where they were not the week before. Sure, I may have strolled into an alternate dimension or timeline, but it’s more likely a practiced glance down the road never allowed me to notice what was always there in the periphery.

It begs the question: What else have I missed by seeing things in certain ways? Probably a lifetime’s worth of interesting stories and details. Probably some life-altering information that wasn’t discernible by who I was at the moment. Probably a chance at love, an idea for an article or essay, a way to earn more money, a solution to humanity’s worries and woes, a way out of my own mental constructs for a day or two… Probably a billion billion potentialities and minutiae that no longer have relevance to the path I’m walking now.

Solvitur ambulando