About Normal

Wise men have told me before that being Okay is where it's at. Happiness is fleeting and sadness is cumbersome. Most days are spent running away from one and towards the other. While both are complementary and feed into each other, constant engagement must be soul crushingly exhausting. Hard times make you appreciate the good, and good times are what we all live for. But if there's something to be said about mediocrity, it's that there's no need to say anything about it at all, and that's the most beautiful thing.

Perhaps that's what they mean by the little things. The every day stuff most taken for granted, content in being in the background, serving as a quaint sanctuary and providing peaceful serenity to all that are weary. They say that those are actually the most beautiful things of all. The ritual of making tea, the monotany of brushing your teeth, looking outside a window while it rains, sitting calmly in a room by yourself, and all the while doing nothing at all. Doing a job that gets you by. Reading a book for the sake of it.

Watching a person make colorful smoothies on YouTube and listening to lo fi mixes. Sitting on the roof during winter on a sunny day with clear skies, soaking it all in. Simple pleasures and dull pains; those are the core components. Caring about how you look, but not enough to watch a make-up tutorial or develop a skin routine. Working to feel good in your skin, but not enough to aim for a six-pack. Relishing the simple satisfaction of taking no risks and feeling secure in your position. Not competing with anyone, making agendas, planning, aiming, or strategizing. 

A simple life is the easiest and most accessible paths to fulfillment. It's available to everyone and belongs to no one. There aren't many virtues in it to admire, nor sins to condemn. Whatever is, simply is. No matter what role you have been given, or which mission you have chosen for yourself, it's important to keep in touch with this fundamental part of reality. It may seem boring, and it can be over long periods of time, but that should be seen as a red flag if nothing else. For sitting around and doing nothing is actually a supreme luxury enjoyed by all forms of creatures across creation. 

Why must man put himself in a position where he envies a monkey? The monkey has its own troubles too, but it doesn't seem to envy the man. So don't be worse off than a wild animal, and let your spirit soar by simply allowing yourself to exist. Then again, words don't do justice to how near and dear normality is in every day life. Anyone can look around and find it within reach. Making it sound like some special thing to be aspired to misses the point entirely. Being normal means to be yourself, right now, as you are, where ever you might be. 

It's finding that all you need to be grounded is to drop an anchor where you stand. If you can't find your anchor, check yourself, for you might be carrying it on your shoulders or your head! One might feel constricted and suffocated in their life. After all, there's nothing more horrible than feeling stuck. Embracing nothingness might not be the solution for people in that situation. What's most important is to follow what attracts you. There are always attractions and repulsions around as well. The object being sought is often seeking the subject as well. If you feel the pull of a certain thing, that thing might be aching to meet you as well.

Home is where the heart is, but ships weren't made to stay docked forever. Normal life is all around us, ready to hold us in place, to keep us calmly in check, keeping us sane, and embracing us in its warm embrace. But if that warmth starts to send shivers down your spine, its perfectly fine to run away in any direction of your choosing. Home will always be waiting, and it'll taste all the better after a break. The more you struggle and exhalt out there, the more peacefully you can sleep after returning. But to live on the road forever is a special kind of hell. 

That's why I'm beginning to appreciate what they meant when they spoke so highly of being okay. That's why they told me to aim for mediocrity. I can appreciate today quite fondly, for if I had to sum it up in one word, it would be: normal. Uneventful but memorable. Hardly noteworthy but still fulfilling. Full of gentle movement without fuss. Leisurely engaged with no rush. Doing what I want, what I must, and plenty of spaces in between. There's certainly more to life, but we have everything we really need.