A LOVELY SURPRISE

We always look at the world the same way. We just crystallize our experiences and feelings, our thoughts and visions, people and ideas –we crystallize ourselves. Our gaze is kidnapped by inertia.

So life is less interesting or becomes a mere repetition when, if any surprise occurs, it comes from the outside, like an intruder who sneaks into our lives. We long for it as a gift (when it makes us feel good) and we fear it as uncertainty (when it makes us feel bad), but it seems that we humans could not contribute to it, convene it for the good and the beautiful.

As luck, having the pleasant surprise is something that does not depend on us, or is reserved for special occasions with recurring appointment in the calendar. Even those become tedious and often predictable routines eventually, too.

Best of all, the surprise is free. No need of complications or big budgets for it. We have been deceived. We believed that these tweaks of joy depend on consumerism when they do not.

Indeed, surprise comes from a new look, a silence that we have been prevented from overly, all fearful, not realizing that it is from this that everything comes around, also on the inner gesture, and the desire to bring our children’s soul back: being free, pure, real, rebel, naive and critical at once.

Surprise demands us natural as a child, going to the roots, showing a smile and the explorer within us, who is capable of noticing the king is naked and who is still fascinated with a dewdrop on a leaf, with the slow snail and its trail, with the smell of mint, or rose, or the cloud which fades with almost imperceptible slowness, with the smell of fresh bread, with the kiss and the unexpected hug, with that extraordinary book lying on the shelf, covered with dust, and patiently waiting to be discovered or re-discovered after years of neglect.

Yes, our look at world is pessimistic, and then we only reckon it is so deceiving. But we are the ones to close our eyes to the fresh, curious, new and innocent look that beats every moment in the eyes of a child, which is still alive here and now, in the breast of each of us.

We are not passive agents of life. Living is not just existing. To live is to promote the friendly match, the appreciative look, the friendly surprise around us and, of course, for ourselves. To live is to understand better to love better and to  love better to understand better. Living is giving out breezes of joy.

Exploring the element of surprise, Bill Murray lived his Groundhog Day over and over. Let’s not make it happen to us. Let’s bring up surprise and give it away. More than an exercise of courage, it is an exercise in curiosity, generosity and love that can transform our lives.

Blessed pleasant surprises.

I wish you a beautiful week with good surprises created from the heart.

Álex