We are Trying to Eliminate Complications, Not Add to Them: The Delights of the Ordinary No. 7

“When all the suns and nebulae have passed away, each one of you will still be alive.”

– C. S. Lewis

Gazing up in the dark sky of the cityscape I miss seeing the stars of the universe. “They have eloped the skyline,” I mumble.

Some weeks later somewhere in February, twenty twenty-three NASA released the picture of a gemstone-look-alike galaxy of ‘about 300,000 stars packed into a ball about 100 light-years across.’ They christened it Messier 92 (nicknamed M92.)

This is the ordinary of the heavens. Jaw-dropping gorgeously lit galaxies expanding and colliding with each other.

“A light-year is the distance light travels in one Earth year. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion km). That is a 6 with 12 zeros behind it!” – NASA

The below image was taken by James Webb’s Telescope a much more advanced space camera than the Hubble telescope.

I feel the sense of so much inherent coexistence, not just in our earthly timeline, but on the scale of proportion and understanding, how tiny we are in the eternal grand scheme.

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Even then coming back to our earthly residence we graciously fail to see the charm that already exists around us. We haggle with our life worries like they are a light-year long and about 300,000 anxieties packed in a ball. But since we demand a vicious fast-paced life what we deliver is also cold, and devoid of empathy.

I believe we have enough meat around and less of teeth to chew that meat. Because the world and its pressures are bossing over us.

Cultures are not created by the norms out there. They are not scraped out from archaeological discoveries or historical data. They are created by you and me. They are those mini collisions of ideas, thoughts and a lot of inhibitions and fears and even failures and vulnerability. These collisions are done in us. Through us, around us and between us.

So to ponder: And just like these nebula stars we also expand and shrink. We deal with people and beyond. And so in most probable things, we have to create lots of patience with each other and strive to create lots and lots of delight.

It is always difficult to deal with people. Yet it is in the communities we develop creative ideas. In not-so-immaculate settings, these ideas collide. And that is what keeps us all moving.

Conversations at those ordinary coffee tables in those ordinary cafes, at the regular dining tables what came from there were ideas and a lot of inspiration. The innovations happened, music made, joy spread, smiles heard and laughter echoed. Tears poured, challenges accepted, the stars shone and galaxies made.

We share the same humanity under the same skies.

To Delight Scroll : When talking about people, see the notes people left in their library books. Over the years the staff of Oakland Public Library found them, scanned them and made them a part of their collections. One note says, “Sinai, you are off to such a great start! Welcome.” 🙂

Scruffy Hospitality: We cannot shun the joy of finding scruffy hospitality as Father Jack King calls it. We are learning to be hospitable if we can welcome people in our humility than our excellent standards of living. Hospitality is not a house inspection but friendships we make over our dining tables. He says, “One thing I can expect…I probably won’t remember how accurately I trimmed the grass on our driveway on any given night we host guests. But I will remember the people who put their feet under our table.” Ordinary spaces may not look tidy and impeccable all the time but they are home to many conversations, deeper friendships and creations.

We are in the midst of so much creativity that we can not really understand that every step incurs itself into the extraordinary. Since it is very slow we hardly catch it. A slow simmer. And slow is good. It is not supposed to be fast that we start to keep our log books handy. It is an act of patience and we can never know what magic it will create.

To conclude:

Morning Meditation by Rainer Maria Rilke 
Have patience with everything 
unresolved in your heart, 
and try to love the questions themselves 
as if they were locked rooms 
or books written in a very foreign language. 
 
Do not search for the answers, which 
could not be given to you now,
because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. 
Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, 
without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Today you see the ordinary but tomorrow you will witness the extraordinary.

You may have a sparkling and fulfilling week ahead.

Anugrah | Paint My Word