A new home, a project you’re doing, a thing to cook and eat… the options are endless. The excitement is required.
The future can be tomorrow, two hours away, next week, a year, a decade. I, we, need to be excited about something.
We loved chemistry and biology and music and choir back in school, and we recently got excited about buying food to cook and eat — the future needs that fizz.
It doesn’t matter if the class or food didn’t go as planned, or it turned out terrible. I’m not basing my entire happiness on the excitement and expectation that it will make me happy, I’m happy because I am excited for something. It’s a now feeling, not a future result-based feeling.
I need to remind you about this because I’m worried you’ll forget. I’m worried you’ll grow older and grow up and lose that spark, and wonder why life seems to be so dull. Don’t lose that spark.
There is a quickness to our joy, and it can shift everything. Our mood, our energy, even the colours and light that enter our eyes. The yellows more delightful, the pinks more romantic.
It’s the spirit of exploration. Of attention. Of letting something be new and wonderous and filled with life.
And it doesn’t have to be grand. Classes in school and grocery ingredients aren’t grand. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Yes, I could go to a restaurant and have amazing pasta and tiramisu, but I could also have just one beautiful doughnut. It doesn’t have to take hours, like a roller skating session… hmm, what would be exciting that takes just a few minutes? Should I take up miniature painting, as a hobby? Ah, a dance break. Playing music and choosing to let my body be free at home. Or singing out loud. I should probably have the windows closed…
It doesn’t even have to be all about play. I can be, and have been, excited about work.
Do you see what I mean, future me? I hope you’re not so bogged down that you forget what it’s like to have your eyes bright and engaged. I hope that whatever happens, you remember that you get to have a life, not have to. I hope that you remember that you’re in control of who you spend time with, what you do, and how you feel doing it.
And I hope you always have something to look forward to.
✒️✨🧭
Image of a half-assembled tiramisu, ingredients all around by yousafbhutta from Pixabay.