We are hungry for the new; even in times of extreme comfort when all around us is perfectly slotted into place we welcome the new. We yearn for the undiscovered, we are excited by the untamed, and we rejoice the unfathomed fathomed. From the deepest secrets of the skies above to the brightest treasures in the land below, from our forgotten memories to the tender stories of another, from the adventure tomorrow hails to the magical twist of now, we are all like the characters of fairy tales we have been brought up on- yearning, seeking and celebrating. Some of us are playful pirates on a stormy sea, some damsels in distress awaiting their heroic knight, and some wise travellers narrating another man’s journey. But no matter what role we fancy and no matter how much we fear or resist change, we all love an adventure… or atleast the fantasy of it.
Why is it then that we seek the new when we work so hard to create, retain and maintain what we do have? Is it our love for change, or the boredom we escape through it? Is it that we are human and therefore never truly satisfied- a whole world awaits to be conquered, or that we have no choice but to move with life and adventures allow us to escape the pain of loss? Or, and as I see it, is it the purity of experience we discover in the new: for the truly new has no memory to taint it, no pre-knowing to limit it and no expectations to weigh it down.
This is a moment unfettered, an experience without labels and an opportunity to live beyond our knowing and doing- to grow beyond ourselves. Like a skydiver falling to earth for the first time, like a young lad discovering the pearl of love, like a chef inventing new culinary delights, in taking on the new we take on ourselves anew- our fears, our doubts and our courage. We may feel confused, enthralled, exhilarated or all of this and more, but nothing can prepare us or predict fully the gift of this moment, of this experience. It matters not if we fall flat on our face or fly to the loftiest peaks, we are left breathless. And more often than not, we want more.
I have a peculiar habit: every day as I sit at my desk, before commencing any work, I like to choose a piece of music that resonates with me, that I feel will hit the right chords and move me- shift me into a space of open heartedness, receptivity and creativity. More often than not this is usually one track that I then proceed to play over and over again- sometimes for a whole day, never tiring of it for I am suspended in it. The first time I hear this music it may send chills down my back; the hundredth time around I am already engulfed in the bliss it offers- no need now for any chills or shocks to move me. I am well aware that this is one of my most irritating habits for the observer - and involuntary listener- but it is in this space that I am happiest working, it is here that I find many a productive high. And it is in this space that I discover the music anew- a piece I may know tab for tab, word for word scales a new height with me each time I choose to suspend myself in it. The same old music from yesteryears takes on a whole new meaning, a whole significance and a whole new set of associations on this new day- it is experienced as never before and never again. That for me is the true beauty of music- its eternity. But even greater is the lesson I learn through it- that in seeking the new, in looking to find myself anew I do not always need new pastures or landscapes to capture; I simply need an open, receptive heart to find it again among all that I may seem to already know.
The new lies nestled not among the rocky slopes of challenging mountain ranges or murky depths of the deepest seas; the new lies patiently within us waiting to germinate through life as we choose to experience it. The earth, our environment, our beliefs are much too old, far too mapped to offer any adventure and yet they do-not simply because they are in constant flux, but because we are always new, for we are always unmapped- a tad bit if not much… a tad bit just enough.
Therefore in seeking the new we can leave behind what is to create our worlds afresh, or we may turn around and celebrate what we hold once more- paint across a new canvas or add the finishing touches to an aged masterpiece. The new lies waiting at every step, every blink and every heartbeat for such is the magnificence of being human. But however, if it is purity we seek- for that is what attracts us to newness- then we are called to forget all that is every moment, we need to relearn and take nothing for granted, and we must rise to see the universe around us with new eyes- at every step, in every blink and with every heartbeat- for such is the calling of innocence, for such is the nature of the pure.
Like our friends, the nocturnal pirates and the dramatic damsels, we too are called upon to live each moment to its fullest, no matter how many times we may have crossed the seas, and no matter how long we are locked up in our towers- never shying from the ecstasy or the agony, the angels and the monsters, surrendering to and participating in all that the moment may bring us. For in living out a moment anew we experience our world afresh; for in being all this moment heralds we are reborn, rediscovered and reinvented- we are new, we are pure… now and unto eternity.
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