The Artist Date: The Purposeful and Meaningful Romance of Life
Leni:
Driving to my exam was actually relaxing. I realized it had been a while since I took a decent ride without a destination. Despite my enjoyment, I had other things on my mind, so I decided it’s time to crank the tunes up and enjoy the open road. I set everything up: my hot tea, my tunes and filled the tank with gas. Off I go! I headed towards Guelph but I didn’t visit my sister. Instead I hit the quaint downtown, drove out to Elora and saw the gorge. I also stopped in St. Jacobs. There was no destination … just the shortest of road trips.
I heard terrific songs to sing alone to: Lumineers, Imagine Dragons and Mumford and Sons. That was the mood I was in … but I always sneak a little Jack Johnson and the incredible David Gray in!
I enjoyed sitting down. Watching people and the lack thereof at times. I contemplated life and was really present, recognizing I am one of the very few in this world with the ability to go where I need to go, do what I want. It is a bittersweet feeling. Happy to have been granted the fortune of being free and the child of good people where so many don’t have that. It is important to take these moments and appreciate what we have even when it is hard because we’re cognizant of how other people aren’t as privileged.
I hit some of the little shops and talked to the store owners about local history. It’s a whole different experience to do some digging about a place you’re visiting instead of just reading the standard tourist pamphlet. Good stories always come from the locals.
I was looking forward to the drive back when I was full and content from the day. Back to the music and singing along as loud as I want! I fueled the car on the way in and mine was fueled on the way home.
Adrienne:
Beautiful. Thank you.
This post is pretty much a wish come true for me. I am deeply disturbed by the current wave of anti-humanity, and yet I have just as deep of a connection to, and personal conviction that, the resolution is simply the witnessing of the beauty of life, in the contrast and in the profound living of it, rather than the standing on the sidelines critiquing. I mean whole-hearted engagement in life is the cure. I also believe that at this time in our human history, where we are learning to understand the value of our energetic communication – the value of conscious non-verbal communication – not just as person-to-person, but being to being, or energetic mass to energetic mass. This means that “love” doesn’t have to be person to person, it can just be the raw love of beauty, and in life that’s not hard to find.
Woo woo! I’m suddenly a speeding train.
BUT.
What I mean is we give power and meaning to those things we witness, take in, and love. Those things we enjoy with our presence grow and prosper. All things, all context.
I saw this vid on FB this am – apparently put together by Chris Hadfield, White Oaks alumni, btw – of all of the amazing things that are happening right now. For example, plastic clean up starts THIS summer, Panda’s are no longer on the endangered list, Manatees neither, highest birth rate for Tigers ever, China (for Fox Creek of all places) will be sustainable electric power by 2020… many other things.
It doesn’t matter where you are, who you are, or how many ducats are in your pocket (I am so diversely privileged that I don’t know what kind of currency that is and I’m not going to look it up, been saying that since high school and it is my fave word for dollar, hoping to hell now it is acceptable) global change happens when you engage in the beauty of whatever needs support.
Right now, for me, living in this particularly diverse city, it will not be hard for me to participate in the change. It’s easy for me to appreciate my own life, and I know when I take the time to recognise that, it gives me a ton of energy left over to go out and be good to people. Any people.
I too have an amazing life, and I too come from incredibly good people. That energy is a currency and spreading it around is really easy. I’m not sure if this is where you were going with this, but thanks for the hand-off. I feel like being good to people is not enough, but it is, and that’s the point. It’s the part I control, and when I take that back into my own hands, that counts as my “vote” for how I want my energy spent.
