Water Flowing Everywhere

"It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.” 

~ Nicholas Sparks

Lately, and continually, I've been noticing water.  This is one of those new and very old things, but it's new every day when we choose to see it that way.

There are dramatic ways of looking at water, of course, expansive ways.  The ocean.

 

Yet what captured my attention just the other day while walking?  Water flowing in the gutters in the street. 

And suddenly I more fully remembered the child I once was (and still am, when I remember), how captivated I was by such a readily approachable thing as watching gutter water flow.  At times I would do something to divert the water's direction, then pause attentively, observe.  I was occasionally more entertained by the gutters around our home than with any number of toys, though I liked toys too.  This was my childhood.  And I remember.

Now when I look upon the water, and this is what I noticed the other day, I reflect upon the Flow.  I reflect upon how it is truthfully possible to discover hidden beauty in the simplest and most humble  of diverse ways.  But we must open our eyes and choose to look.  I'm happy I remember.

Our Vitality Accounts

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.” ~ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

It may seem obvious, and perhaps we may discover that we are reminding ourselves regularly (which is definitely better than no reminders at all).

No matter how busy we find ourselves to be, or how busy we expect ourselves to be (which are actually two different measurements), if we aren't investing daily in our "vitality accounts", all of our efforts, imagined, demanded, expected, or otherwise, are greatly diminished.

While out walking just now, in a Beautiful place, after realizing I needed to act on the reminder, as I've done quite often these days, I remembered the obvious.  And this is not just something we must continually give to ourselves - it is something we must continually accommodate in our expectations of others.  Vitality investment comes first.  It enhances the worth of everything else, and it lingers. 

Some day, perhaps, if we choose to be courageous, we will co-create a world in which living and working in this way are the norm and not the exception.