A Golden Phoenix
There’s something quite moment-defining in feeling our spirits lift, soar for however long it takes us to soar on its wings and deliver us up from out of the everydayness of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate ‘everydayness’ it’s kept my feet blessedly muddy and helped flesh out my dreams.
There’s something about feeling the sun on my face or being surprised by the feeling of joyfulness that must be felt to be truly appreciated. I like the way the afternoon sun licks at my toes, the same way in the past that the sea has chased me up the beach to nip at my heels. There’s a playfulness about life that I’ve come to appreciate, simply for appreciations sake.
I’ve been guilty in the past of reducing the beauty of it [life] to a mere formality, a numbering, if you will, of some apparently colourless days, yet the truth is more obstreperous than that, my life, like yours is a wheel within a wheel. I am many things to many people.
In truth, I have had relatively fewer colourless days than I can poke a stick at and from time to time I have indeed reduced it [life] to a set of impressions that, for the most part, appeared to be, only partly accurate. So I’m wary of those impressions now because it’s from these impressions I’ve made my judgments too.
That said, there’s a case to be made for the place of kindness in today’s larger-than-life days, how it can temper the harshness of initial impressions. Kindnesses both big and small are like a mythical phoenix materialising up from out of ashes, they lift our spirits and our hearts.
My neighbour is the busy mother of a busy household. Most days the line is bulging with clothes. I’ve taken to getting her washing in off the line and folding it for her, it’s so relaxing. It’s a small kindness I can do it without feeling like I need to explain why I’ve done it. I’ve done it because I can, end of story.
Kindnesses are like that, no long-winded explanations, no hidden agendas, just spontaneous acts of generosity that arise out of ‘everyday’ happenings. Such things lift our spirits, but above all, they remind us there are relatively fewer colourless days than you can poke a stick at and life doesn’t have to be reduced to a set of impressions.
