Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Ordinary Life

As a habit, I logged onto Twitter this morning as I settled into my desk. Scrolling down, I saw someone tweeting this quote "An ordinary life is the ultimate happiness" and accredited it to Thomas Merton. It got me wondering if this Thomas guy had a very extraordinary life that got him reeking of torpidity, so he had come to embrace a mystical idea of an ordinary life.

I believe I am categorically eligible to bicker about ordinary life because? simple, I am leading one. As much as it is to the perspectives of people, there's each to his/her own. So this is mine, consider this disclaimer.

Ordinary life has bestowed me with two struggles I grapple with, every living minute of mine: Anhedonia and Restlessness.

Anhedonia:
We were at a bar on one of the recent weekend evenings. Nibbling away some super fried patties while guzzling down some pints over age-old conversations with an old friend. It began to rain & it battered the glass wall. The bobbing droplets helplessly trickled down. It was picturesque. We were sitting cozy and pretty on the warmer side of the wall. And then it struck me: why wasn't I able to enjoy the moment? I tried counselling myself by remembering my amazing partner of a wife, a peaceful career, decent health and intact appetite; only before I gave up and glared emptily through the glass wall.

Restlessness:
I am hardly able to sit through a movie for 90 minutes, let alone determining to put a book to its permanent rest. When I'm home, my limbs years for some ambling and when I am out in the world, I ache for a silence only a room can offer. I am always here or there but my mind is invariably somewhere else. I long for a still calmness which evades me like a feather on a windy field.



Ordinary Life - a tantalizing condition that barely is the ultimate happiness.