The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is, “Look underfoot.” You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the centre of the world. Stand in your own dooryard and you have eight thousand miles of solid ground beneath you, and all the sidereal splendors overhead.
—John Burroughs (1908)
American naturalist and nature essayist
I’ve found myself caught up in an over-utilitarian mindset, (1) worshipping productivity and (2) expecting immediate gratification for my devotion. Based on the Internet cathedrals of self-help articles, I am not alone in this.
We are constantly aspiring to something seen just in the periphery, just around the corner, just out of reach—something (we think) we can grasp if we simply run faster, strive harder, sleep less.
There is something to be said for this: life is a journey, and what is a journey without some sort of destination in mind, some north star to follow? This is what goals are for.
At the same time, we live in an accumulation of ordinary moments: the crisp scent of dew evaporating under birdsong, the lazy liquid glow of golden hour, the crinkle in the smile of a friend who was a name only months before. Each careless second has all this and more.
Sentimentality can save us if we let it.