We take what we are given for granted; it’s plain and simple. Even when we sit back and reflect on what we truly have, and take in the beauty of everything around us, we cannot comprehend it. Our minds elude the magnificence of our daily lives. Our ability to walk, to think, to communicate, to sing, to breathe, to see — it is all an abstract art form. We pretend to understand it and appreciate it, but if we truly sit back and reflect on what we have, this world would be completely different.

The astonishing thing is we accept that we take everything for granted and are at peace with it. I do it constantly. I almost never think twice about the complexity of my heart pumping blood, or my lungs expanding and contracting, or my eyes dilating when I am exposed to bright lights. Our bodies are extreme manifestations of what nature had intended for us to become. And quite frankly, we failed. We drown ourselves in the drab and mundane self-indulgences that constitute are lives. These pleasures fulfill nothing but our selfish needs to further justify our existence — watching TV, over-eating, over-sleeping. And the fact is, most people hate their lives, and yet they do nothing to refine them.

I’m writing this not to condemn others for their lifestyles — that their routines don’t match up to what they should be doing; No, I’m writing this to reassure myself that I do care about what I do, and I do appreciate the fact that I am here.

A teacher of mine once said, “Life is all about money.” What he meant by this is that when provoked and threatened, life comes down to how much money you have. Some people might say, “No, not me. Life is all about the friends you make, and the ones you love.” That’s very poetic and all, but when it comes down to it, man wants to survive. And in this day and age, money is the key to survival. Not partnership. Take the stock market crash in the 30’s for example: families were putting their kids (of all ages) up for adoption because they could not afford to feed them. The reason I bring this up is to illustrate that man wants to be extant; we want to live. We do not care how; we just know that when we die, that’s it. The ironic thing is that when we die, we cannot take all the money and fame with us that we so desperately needed to exist.

People scrounge around trying to save up money only to have it stripped away when they die. Does this sound appealing? Why sure! If we are only going to live once, why wouldn’t we want to have a good time while it lasts. After all, who cares if we can’t take the money with us when we die? We’re dead.

Again, I said all this to state the simple fact: we want to live. And people get so caught up into this that they forget the very essence of their life, their soul. Now, I do not mean the soul on a religious plane; I mean it on a spiritual plane, and there is a difference. Spiritual means you have no set affiliation with any sort of religion, but you have some sort of view on the divine. And I believe many people are spiritual.

Your soul is best described as a plant (in my mind). The more you feed it, the more it grows. And the way you feed it is to forget about the worldly pleasures (man-made objects), and focus more on the natural pleasures (taking walks/hikes, going to the beach, traveling — getting out of your comfort zone and seeing the world through new eyes). Sure I can write this, and it sounds good, but I would be a liar if I said I did this at least 20 percent of the time (and that is being generous). And if you’re like me, this news shouldn’t discourage you, on the contrary, it should motivate you. And that is where I believe it is affecting me. I want to prove myself wrong, and show myself that there are pleasures out there that do not involve electricity.

The world is a glorious place filled with beauty and diversity. And once we take that first step out into it, we can’t help but smile. I don’t say this to sound cliché, I say this to make myself aware of the fact that life is not cliché. That it is beautiful, that it is magnificent, that it is all it’s cracked up to be. We can all experience it, we don’t have to hide behind a veil of doubt that we might lose our way. Because with every wrong turn we make (figuratively and metaphorically), it only invites a new understanding of ourselves and our surroundings.