“Pass-through this brief patch of time in harmony with nature, and come to your final resting place gracefully, just as a ripened olive might drop, praising the earth that nourished it and grateful to the tree that gave it growth.”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.48.2
Isn’t it the most beautiful mediation among all we have read till now? I do love this quote. I especially relate to this quote because I believe myself to have a soul of an artist trapped in the body of an engineer. And I can tell you what a delight it is when I see the world from my soul rather than my mind and body.
How to see the world like a poet and an artist?
There is one and simple answer to it. By practicing gratitude. When you are grateful for the things around you, you can start seeing beauty in simpler things. You start hearing music in noise, finding comfort in chaos, and seeing beauty in something plain. There is a beautiful quote “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder“. And that’s what happens when you are grateful, you get the eyes of a poet or an artist who finds beauty in the simplest of things.
When you are grateful you appreciate each and everything Universe created, you appreciate your body, your surroundings, the food you eat, and the clothes you wear. You appreciate the coolness of the wind on a hot day, the greenness of the trees around you, the warmth of the bed on a cold winter day, the wetness of the water on the sore throat, and a morsel of food in a hungry stomach. You start seeing the blessing in each and everything that the other pains and troubles will start seeming incomparable.
It takes an artist’s eye to see that the end of life is not unlike a ripe fruit falling from its tree. It takes a poet to notice the way “baking bread splits in places and those cracks, while not intended in the baker’s art, catches our eye and serves to stir our appetite” and find a metaphor in them.
Ryan Holiday
So, let’s make it a habit to practice gratefulness every day. Just take out 10-15 mins every day and write 3 things that you are grateful for today. This gratitude journal will also serve as a reminder for you on a rainy day that even though there are few cuts and burns but overall the life is still good.
[…] We all are running too fast in our lives. Slow down a little bit from time to time and notice small things around you. The child playing, the wind blowing, the rain falling and the birds chirping. You will find beauty in everything around you. See The World Like A Poet And An Artist […]