The little things intrigue me when I take a moment to listen.

Leaves on a tree can render me as silent as when I am being filled by the wise words of an elder. There is something about the knowledge that life is happening both within and around you with no direct work of anyone. It just happens and the only thing that matters is how you react.

I like to think of myself as a tree in a parking lot–a beautiful thing–grown up within the world but clearly apart from it. If I can be someone else’s shade or inspiration then that life is not wasted.

I have begun reading C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters and have been struck by the reality of that which we cannot see. The reality within is often more alive and masked by the reality without.

I believe the spiritual world is among us and the sensitivity to nature and your inner being is the key to unlocking the point of it all. We weren’t put on this world to get smarter, read more books, color between the lines and eat choice foods. If that is the point of it all, then eat and be merry for tomorrow we die. Kill me now so I don’t have to waste today, if that’s the case.

Time spent alone is crucial in understanding life when we are all together. I find that I can focus more, breathe better and live with more color when I have sat in silence alone before my day begins. If I do not, it’s as if I miss the point behind everything I do and my day becomes a ritual to only be repeated tomorrow. The monotony of a day can squeeze out life, imagination, creativity and dreams.

In the Screwtape letters, the Uncle (who is writing the letters to his conniving nephew) speaks about humans as if they are creatures in a cage. The uncle is teaching his nephew about the habits of humans that destroy their quality of physical and spiritual life:

“How enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.”

Break the ordinary by breaking yourself. Give in to a contemplative lifestyle. Submit yourself to silence and find the life within the life you’re living.