Life Expands

August 24, 2026

Greetings from the celebration,

This morning I took my second cup of coffee and stepped outside and smelled the air, sensed a new edge in the light wind.  The deck was cool under my feet.  Just beyond the umbrella of trees was a sky full of stars, which startled me a little.  “Where have you been?” I asked, out loud. 

The stars responded in the way they have since their origin; this pause where I uncovered the answer to my own question.

There are mornings, probably most, that begin without fanfare, without the celebration that is due.  We have surfaced from our dreams, reborn into this world. Sleep, that necessary pause, releases us back into the world with a clean pallet, a wide open horizon.

In the hours that follow we choose where we will go.  We are afraid, cynical, tired, our senses dulled by small screens and small people. Or, we are inspired, hopeful, full of choices and possibilities. 

I know.  Some days it is far easier to get in step with the loudest drum.  It is easiest to see the scrim of gray in the sky, feel the ache of living.  There are bills to pay, there is anger, injustice, or loneliness.  The days seem ordinary, routine, unworthy of remarking other than, “You again?”

Except none of us were made for that easier choice. That’s why a day of listening to the complaints of life leaves us feeling tired, unsatisfied and anxious or worse.  There is no shortage of people, and experiences, that will stunt your thinking, make you believe in the worst that life offers.

Our challenge is to find the people who cause us to think of our better selves, the ones who remind us to be grateful, to seek hope, not simply wait for it to land on us.  When you look for them, sometimes it takes a minute, you will see them.

Some believe in magic. Some are children.  Some stare at morning campfires and smile for no reason. They laugh and they inspire laughter. There are people who seem kind and patient for no reason other than the practice.  There are those who feel that prayer exists in everything we do, including looking for what to pray for. Some sit quietly and abide.  Some exude hope, in their words and in what they do…instead.

My experience, mottled and irregular, is that I will more likely look for these helpers, if I first celebrate the beauty of this day. If I refuse to accept the mundanity, the drone of plodding into yet another twenty-four hours of drudgery.

The first answer is out there, beyond the glass, beyond the partitions that we build and others we imagine.  It is in nature, in the jagged edges and green and brown and dirt, in the stone, in the cold and inconvenience, in the fresh westerly breeze that says change is coming.  It is the inspiration to know more by looking for more, by taking the chance.  Somewhere in a play I’ve never seen there is a line:  “Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?”

It is a reason to celebrate.  Clap your hands at the sunrise, be amazed at the same sparrow, in awe of the impossible life of trees, be inspired by the incessant living and rebirth of nature.  Recognize your place in all of this, and the thrill of it will inspire you to look, to search for the people who were put here to keep you in this joy.

We can only take this journey by taking a chance, by separating ourselves from the part of life that is so tempting, seemingly necessary, and yet which conspires to chew us into something smaller.  We can only become more by taking this leap away from the fragile temporary happiness to something harder, but lasting.  To borrow a piece from a poet; Life expands when we do. 

And then, somehow, you will cross paths with the person who will matter, who will bring you the reason to take a breath of hope.  And you will be filled with this feeling, this happiness that the scribes have failed to capture. And you might say, “Where have you been?”

And they might offer a silence for you to answer your own question, or they might say: “I have been here all along, all your life.  I have been here for all of the time before, and I will be here forever and forever and for whatever comes after.”

Hope this finds you seeking,

David

This essay was written by the author and does not include Ai content.

Copyright © 2026 David Smith