This is Not the Fireplace You are Looking For
Adventures in NOT keeping the main thing the main thing
I only took one picture. I drove six hours to be present with the people I was with and soak in the songs and creative spirit of the gathering. I only took one picture because I didn’t want to confine the tangible experience in front of me to the few inches of digitized ceramic shield glass of my phone. It doesn’t matter how many pixels are flickering; nothing is as HD as real life. But I took one picture. I had to. A few years ago, the people behind this artist’s collective relocated JRR Tolkien’s Oxford House fireplace to their gathering space brick-by-brick. I took a picture. I sat by it and touched the hearth, imagining the creator of hobbits and Middle Earth, warming himself in a cozy chair, reading, and sipping tea. It was magical. It was magical until I realized I was fawning over the wrong fireplace. Tolkien’s fireplace wasn’t the big one in the center of the room. No, it is a smaller one in a corner that I never noticed or saw. I missed it. I’m sure other nerds like me have made the same mistake, but I missed it! In my excitement, I fixated too much on my assumptions and missed the subtlety of what I really wanted to see.
I wonder what else I miss? I wonder what else I invest energy and enthusiasm towards that distracts me from what is more worthy of my attention. What might I see if I slowly looked around more thoroughly and lovingly?
I’m discovering the life I want is rarely found in the big and the bold. Maybe flashy, fancy, spectacular, and extraordinary aren’t my thing. Subtlety doesn’t always equate to importance, but I’m learning not to assume the most obvious is either.
Life is worth slowing down for. I haven’t implemented that entirely yet. But I’m learning to practice. I’m learning to practice, not so I can “make perfect.” Perfect isn’t the point. I’m learning to practice a slow and steady life, looking up and looking around because it feels like a life worth living.