Spring is beautiful but it helps fuel the illusion of “disruptive” change.
One day we look up and all of the trees have blossomed. It’s green everywhere. It appears as if the changes happened overnight. In general, that tends to be the narrative around change in our culture. The startup that disrupts an industry overnight. The outbreak of crime in a certain area. The epidemic which appeared “out of nowhere.”
Yet nothing changes overnight.
Often, we fail to realize that the flowers and trees have been blooming since the day the first leaf fell during that previous October. Change happens drip by drip. It’s gradual and it is literally always happening.
Instead, we wake up one day and ask: how did I get here? How did this happen? What happened to those relationships that were important? What happened to my happiness?
The only way to prevent this is to notice. To learn how to see. Learning how to see is our life’s task.
2018 is my first spring. This spring I have personally been amazed by the beauty of nature. Amazed how the tree in my backyard has gone from barren to full of life and beauty. It’s led me to reflect on how many springs I have been blind to over the last 29 years.
Yet the beauty of learning to see is that once you see something — once you experience it for all that it is — you can never unsee it again. Further, you realize that it’s been with you this entire time.
What can be said of nature can also be said of life. You can’t find and realize the greatness and beauty of your life if you aren’t looking for it. And once you see it, once you experience it for all that it is, the essence and beauty of life never leaves you.
It has always been with you. You merely hadn’t noticed it yet.