Unraveling a conundrum

Strangely enough, I’m diving into Walt Whitman for a much-needed personal reframe. Walt, are you ready? We’re on our way. The subtext is aliveness, my aliveness and yours, dear readers, but we’ll get to that. Promise.

Here’s the venerated Walt W.: “The trick…is to make much of mere daylight and the skies.”

What’s this ‘mere’ thing? Our earth’s “daylight and the skies” are mere? Trifling? Trivial? To be sniffed at? “It’s morning. Time to raise the shades.” Raising the shades encapsulates, embarrassingly so, my daily experience of our glorious sun bursting over the horizon. Yep (head hanging low.) Those Carolina blue skies? “Oh, nice sky today. Hmmm…when’s my first appointment? Gotta get dressed.” Oy.

As I try to unravel this conundrum of “mere,” I’m reclining on my couch, looking out the window at trees and their spreading greenery. Then that pesky adjective, “mere,” once again, rudely butts into my consciousness. If this panoramic view of North Carolina’s nature qualifies only as “mere,” what else is diminished in my eyes? My breathing? Having hands? Working at being a good human?

How do I imbue my life with aliveness? For that exemplar of nature, Mr. Whitman, the appearance of mere daylight and a cloud-filled sky, are more than enough to induce his sense of excited aliveness and awe. But, me, sigh….

Not so much, for me. It stings to admit this. The magnetic draw of chocolate-covered ginger, sitting on my kitchen counter, seems to dwarf both daylight, and the sky, in warranting my attention. However, I can’t dive into chocolate covered ginger without leaving the house, driving to the store, paying, and coming home. So many steps needed for chocolate covered ginger to capture my reverent attention. Whereas the sky, daylight, and nature can be had by just opening the blinds and looking out the window. A cheap date.

The awe of morning’s light, and the vastness of blue skies, are available for the price of simply opening my eyes. Store runs for chocolate-covered ginger aren’t requisite for my feeling alive. I’m still a work in progress, even after all these years…