Being in Mexico helps me reflect on the last couple of months. So much happened in such a short period of time… it’s quite phenomenal! Especially that, due to my highly precarious health condition, I should have slowed down a little… I guess I’ve probably learned to pace myself differently, or maybe I simply don’t listen to medical advice that much (I’m crazy but not reckless I swear!) All that to say, I can hardly recall everything I had the utmost privilege to engage my intentional passion in, to be honest. For me, this is a good thing, as it means evolving in a highly positive motion, and that’s what matters the most to me.
I think that going back to my Virginia home — even its partly destroyed version — after living for more than a year in my suitcases has been deeply significant for me psychologically, regardless of the extreme anxiety that came with seeing my house so terribly damaged by the water pipes. Home is home, and it allowed me to go back into my daily rituals and essential aspects of my life that I can’t truly find anywhere else. Again, home is home.
Therefore, for the second video of my daily ritual, I bring you into the mountain trails where I used to go walk with my departed pup MacKaye. He loved it so much, going into the water, running after the other wildlife residents. This moment was more about him than me; my real treat was to see his joy, his excitement, his innocence, a reminder that once midday comes, the reality usually hits me pretty hard with its duties and responsibilities… The “blessings” of being an artist entrepreneur dealing with the multiple ventures he gave life to. It’s a hardcore type of existence, but one that I’m grateful to live. And witnessing Mac’s exalting happiness was a vivid reminder that most of everything I had the blessing to do through my personal and collective journey was due to that child heart of mine, that I should protect it from the stressful aléas that come with my different enterprises and projects. By doing so, it’s how prosperity comes. And it doesn’t have anything to do with balancing books and profitability. The nature of emotional and spiritual blessings is entirely made of intangible elements. That’s what MacKaye taught me every time he dragged me into those trails: thankfulness and beatitude.
It reminds me of my late father as well, to whom I’m talking out loud once in a while. He would have adored that place; a very old house, the outdoors, and nature. I would have wished for him to retire in that place with my mom, where I believe he could have found a deeper dimension to his already very alive faith in God. Nature has that impact, at least it has on me. It brings spirituality into a lifelike 3-dimensional magnification, its religious antitheses in full display, something that transforms you profoundly without even truly noticing. It’s once the changes are part of your newly formed entity that you start to realize the real impact of nature and its transfiguring essence. It’s a reality designed to be experienced in a total abandonment. That big loving bear of a man that my father was would have definitely fit in this surreal type of inspirational environment.
You will also laugh watching the video: my glasses got filled with fog as I was trying to switch the camera angles and difficultly navigate through all the settings of my video recording app…! Not sure I’m any better at doing any videos several weeks after, but hey, it’s part of the charm of the community “A View From Within”, right?! Authenticity!!!
What are your midday rituals?
Life creates life,
Alex
