Serendipity

Someone once told me years ago, “The silence you offer will gift you the ability of sight”. At the time I didn’t understand what they meant, but I think through age, in most cases, come’s wisdom and I started to speak less and just observe the world around me. I saw that speaking was where complications would start, misunderstandings that would lead to years of resentment. So instead I learned to stay silent, and see the world for what it was. I was able to see deeper into everyday life. Take notice of things I would’ve ignored.

We as a society have grown so out of touch with the everyday beauties. Only in a change of environment can we feel this connection. We move or travel to different countries or cities and only there can we enjoy the quality of life or the beauty the city has to offer. This seemed so outrageous to me. What staying silent allowed for me to do was be present. I could see the beautiful smile a cashier had to offer my day, so I would offer a compliment. I could see a fathers eyes on there daughter as they both ate in a food court. I could see a teenage boy hopelessly in love with a friend but scared to see the future possibilities. I was able to enjoy what I couldn’t before.

Staying silent doesn’t mean being quiet, what it meant was learning to observe your surrounding and take in the positivity that surrounds our lives. It meant learning to converse with people on a daily and indulging our lives with perspective, allowing us to soak in the beauty of living and not just living to die.

Silence gave me the ability to see what many are so foreign to believe. Where this world has been indulged in love that is vapid. The beauty of the everyday became hope where I had lost much.

A story I share is a story I keep close to my heart. Years ago, my wife and I would share our quiet mornings with a coffee or a small breakfast before the busy day arose. We would enter the empty food court to see an elderly man sitting in the corner alone with his breakfast and coffee. Most people would see that and be done with it but I would see him almost every morning until one day my wife and I saw a picture of an elderly woman, no bigger than a wallet sized photo leaning up against the wall the table was next to. My wife and I had soon realized maybe that was a picture of his wife. My wife would leave me to go to school and I was left there still thinking about the elderly man. I wanted to know, so I walked up to the man and kindly sparked a conversation telling him I had seen him almost everyday sitting having his coffee and breakfast. It would be there that he would tell me with the biggest smile on his face that the photo was indeed his late wife. That she had passed but he would still continue there daily routine of breakfast and coffee and a walk around the mall.

I walked away that day realizing the beauty that still existed, surrounded by love and grace. Silence gave me the beauty of sight and observation. It gave me insight and perspective. Gave me hope and enlightenment. For years I learned to be silent and let my eyes observe. Many beautiful conversations with many strangers gave me the gift of friendship.

Find beauty in your everyday, negativity exist but positivity can be found. Search deep and you’ll find it in what you were blinded to see before. There is hope, just allow hope to find you.