How beautiful the city is. Full of life, full of contrast, full of chaos.
Currently, I’m situated comfortably, a bit cold, but comfortably alone on the top of the Pier 66 observation deck overlooking the gorgeous city and putrid sound of Seattle, Washington.
The brown noise of the city in the background fills my ears in a way I’m familiar with; reminiscent, oddly enough, of life back east, of life back home. I’m reminded of the soft inconsequential sounds of the forest: the birds chirping, the trees swaying in the wind. Sounds which are perfectly paralleled by the concrete clanging, car honking, and seagull calling of the city. For both, the city and the woods, in a strange and graceful way, remind me that I am free.
While interconnected with all that surrounds me, I remain free to think how I wish, and write as I please. No matter where I go, the sounds of the world follow. So too an inherent freedom.
Wherever I may be, the world offers me peace and space - space to live, space to be.
Letting one’s self be can be very difficult, however, especially in the presence of others. Oftentimes we’re preoccupied, we’re either trying our best to impress someone into liking us, or persuade someone into thinking like us. A strange tribal game we humans play.
We’re concerned not with being true to ourselves, but with how the other might perceive us, and how to act in accordance with how we’d like to be perceived. When alone, however, this disappears for a time; no longer concerned with matters of external perception, an opportunity arises to just be.
And a wonderful thing that is.
To just be.
In my life, as I’ve touched on, time alone - whether immersed in deep wilderness or strolling through concrete jungles - is where I recognize this opportunity to be most easily. However, I don’t feel by any means that such an opportunity is found exclusively in solitude, rather the opposite. The opportunity exists always and in all places, just so long as it’s presence is recognized.
To see clearly the space for peace, and to see such in all places - this is something, for me, worth cultivating.
To just be - everywhere I go.
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As always, more to come.
Hare Krishna.