Trust me, it's paradise

When I wake up in the morning and finish preparing for my day, I get out to hop on my vehicle to get to work. Hitting that starter switch on the bike always feels different than turning the key in the ignition of the car. It's not just that the rumbling motor is right underneath my butt as opposed to being in front of me. It's that the presence and all its realities suddenly come together in a rush. I stop thinking about the distant future. I stop thinking about this time next year. I stop thinking about tomorrow. I stop thinking about what I will do at work.

I think about this moment. I think about now. The concentration of solving the challenge right in front of me is exciting and rejuvenating. Certainly, in my life, I have dreamed of great moments that would be sweeter than anything I have ever felt before. The temptation is, however, to get lost in those dreams and never get out. Being on the bike cures that syndrome.

When I look back at the pictures of people or myself, I really wonder if they (including me) really savored each and every moment that they were smiling with their friends. If they ever took risks and enjoyed the rewards that it brought. I wonder if people really felt those moments.

Why does this really all matter? Well, because all those moments are paradise. The moment doesn't have to be anything that no one has done before. It doesn't have to be well-publicized or well-known to the masses. Every single obscure moment that you can spend with your friends or quietly by yourself could be a paradise on its own.

That reminds me of a quote - "scars remind us that the past is real". I think we need to go out there and create more scars. It is to know that we truly have lived, and that our dreams led us to do good things. Things that when we look back, we may consider them part of paradise.