Do you ever listen to the sound of the earth?

Saturday night, I rolled the car windows down while it was raining. Listened as the droplets gently thudded the windshield. Invited the wind to rush in and meet my ears, creating music like no musician can.

For the first time in a long while, I heard thunder. Not just the rumbling noise. But the soft, subtle sound of reverberation, as it touched the sky, the asphalt, the buildings.

It was a gentle and beautiful reminder that this is the stuff life is made of. Water and air. Ether. Earth and fire. Things that were here long before us and will no doubt survive us.

Even with the many distractions at our fingertips, never does it cease to surprise me: What captivates us most is not shaped by the hands and minds of mankind. 

So listen. It brings a peace like not much else can.

 

Look around today.

Look around today, and bask in the world's existence. Notice the paths not taken. Find beauty where there is none and seek rejuvenation from the mundane. Feel the grace in the air, the salvation in the wind and ahimsa in every smile. Know that all of this – all of these wonders – are not meant to be yours for the keeping. But they are still forever yours to keep.

Going Thoreau.

Sometimes I want to go off the grid. Lakeside. Mountainside. Farmside. Doesn't matter. As long as there's a cottage. One that sits high off the road and water first spits rusty from the faucets. The type of place that has no yard. Just earth. Maples and tall pines poking holes in the clouds. A rambling dirt drive. And skylights to let in the sun and frame the stars.

No past, no future. Just now...and crickets. Beauty, optimism, and simplicity settling like dust in every nook and cranny of existence.

It's a new day.

Today is a day to believe change sits on the horizon. To keep the faith that the talented, the sharp and the smart persevere. To sit back, drink in the sunset, and live in the now, knowing that, soon, another day will dawn, and, with it, the chance to be better, do better and find better will light the sky.

Happy weekend. See you Monday.