It’s so easy to get hung up in boring routines, to get bored in general, at least for me.  I have been fighting this since age 13.  Why is it so damn easy to take things for granted? Every now and then, I think back to how everything just felt magical when I was very young.  I’d spend endless time outside in nature, reveling in it. 

Lately I’ve been watching nature documentaries while I exercise.  I really don’t enjoy exercising, but I have to do it – so I need a motivator.  Watching these videos has reawakened that feeling of wonder I had as a child.  Really, who could imagine some of these strange creatures in nature?!  It literally makes me laugh sometimes.  For example, I was watching something about the wildlife in the Fjords and it showed starfish and how they move around, so funny.  I didn’t even realize starfish could move around like that.  Or this crab was trying to eat something it caught and another fish was lurking around trying to steal it!  Seriously, how funny is that?  (See below for links to my favorite ones.)  Even the way one creature will just devour another is fascinating despite it being sad.  A fish will just be swimming along and out of nowhere, something comes and grabs it.  You see the reality of the natural world, there’s no pretense.

I mean, I am not religious by any degree.  I never could quite believe the catholic version of things I was told as a child.  In fact, it had the opposite effect of that feeling of wonder I naturally had.  But seeing this stuff makes me wonder again what this thing we are here inside of, actually is?  How can we go about so many mundane, meaningless tasks while not truly knowing?  This has always puzzled me.  I have to be ok with not having an answer for now, maybe we can’t know for certain.  There are many theories, but I can’t say I truly believe any of them. Or maybe it’s true that only your own experience can tell you, like an awakening or enlightenment.  But I know I can’t just believe religious dogma because someone says that’s how it is.  Especially because I value direct experience above anything.

One thing I know for sure is that this wonder and magic makes me want to create.  It’s what motivates my art and music.  I think that’s why we are all creators in some way, whether you have a child or create in the endless ways it’s possible to create.  So anytime I feel bored or uninspired, I remind myself to look around. Even my own backyard is filled with astounding magic, when I stop and become present. Suddenly, a beautiful butterfly flies past me, and I feel that same wonder I felt so long ago.