Simple Things

How do you unwind after a demanding day?

Today has, unfortunately, been a pretty rough day. It has been preceded by a really rough day, and before that, a rough day as well.

On the grand scale, my day was so minuscule, but on the personal level… well, trauma abounds.

Life is merciless, and you must take rest. Between endless rounds of attempting to save lives, only to come home and spend hours on fruitless home renovations, then going to the gym, then doing this or that on the daily chores list, exists a moment.

Perhaps the moment is a meal, or an artistic pursuit, or a conversation. Perhaps a study of a particular topic on which I seek knowledge. These are all activities which require attention and discipline, but that I personally do not find guilty of being “work”.

I can do these things, this writing, at my leisure. I have no obligation to produce the words that spill onto the screen. I can be truthful. I can be deliberate, and thoughtful. I can posit, and hypothesize, and I can be, as I am now, quite verbose.

In the pursuit of art, I need neither be good nor bad, I can simply be, and enjoy the creating for the sake of creating.

In the garden, I need not concern myself with the opinions of outside onlookers, but I rather choose to enjoy the beautiful foliage and flowers that spring forth from the created world.

Though there is focus, there lacks an urgency.

Where there is effort, there is no great labor.

This is the art of decompression. I feel no strain, no great chaos pulling my strings. I simply am. I become unwound, a straight line, untangled by the various pursuits of the day. My mind ceases to be anxious, and instead becomes wholly one with the thing it is set to.

To put it simply, I make stuff, and in the making, I come undone.