Todo está en su cabeza

Sometimes  I get the sneaking suspicion that the things I write about in this blog – especially the ones that seem like great revelations to me – are not remotely new or interesting ideas, but are rather painfully and embarrassingly obvious.  In fact, this suspicion is strong enough and appears frequently enough to make me consider that maybe it’s a waste of time to write it - or at the very least that I should change the name to something more apt, like “A Complete Idiot’s Painfully Clichéd Guide to Life…”  I have, after all, proven myself to be capable of trying to glean wisdom from the most obvious of sources, and from my most moronic decisions.  Some of which, I might add, I seem to make again and again without ever learning any better, as I have ostensibly been endowed with the memory span of a hamster (apparently, fish have much longer memory spans than is commonly believed, by the way.  Thank you, Stephen Fry).  So, why don’t I do it?  First of all, fear of a copyright suit from Penguin Books.   And second, I guess because I’m trying to forgive my foolishness.  Isn’t this what we all do?  Stumble from one thing to the next constantly discovering, forgetting, and re-discovering the essential?  Sometimes we need the obvious to hit us over the head with the force of a heavy wooden baseball bat.  Many times.  So I keep writing, just like I keep learning.

This weekend, through various conversations, encounters, coincidences, and the secret magic of samba drums, the oh-so-obvious lesson seems to be one of attitude and perspective.  When everyone you know is going through similar struggles, and some remain cheerful while others are miserable, you can see how attitude makes a huge difference.  When positivity makes you try something different for a change, and it works to make you feel better - or when it makes you appreciate something nice instead of wondering when it’s going to start to go bad - you see it.  When 3 lines of drummers stand shoulder to shoulder making the same brilliant music, you can see how the lively, laughing, goony-looking man becomes so much more appealing and eye-catching than the beautiful but dour woman next to him.  And how the middle-aged mom who’s dancing and laughing looks funny, but much happier than the cool young couple next to her who are nodding their heads drowsily.  It’s very easy to fall prey to the idea that life is about your circumstances.  And a little bit of it is.  But mostly it’s about the joy, isn’t it?  If there is absolutely none to be found anywhere, then maybe your circumstances are making your life.  But for most of us, we can choose to mine out the enthusiasm and enchantment from what we’re already doing, in the place we already are, and then continue to follow it to wherever else it may lead us. 

I’m going to try harder to remember that this time around.  Like usual. ;-)

Something I've been thinking about for a long time: this city looks much prettier
 if you look up.
These are the same buildings, at street level, and above.