While I Wasn't Looking

There have been so many beautiful days this week (at least, where I am).  However, I completely missed the first of these – it was a beautiful day, but I had no idea until I went out around 6pm and realized it!

It made me think:  what else do I miss because I don’t go looking, or assume it’s the same? 

Let’s start with an easy example – television. There are people who watch a lot of television and know all about the latest shows and episodes – what’s good, what’s controversial, and what won’t last past Season 1.  Then, there’s me.  Even if you allow for subjectivity in television preferences, I’m still at the low end of this scale.  I just don’t watch it (or at least, I didn’t).  People would talk about all kinds of shows, and I hadn’t even heard of them, let alone seen the latest episode.  It’s not like it was a big worry.  But with the recent isolation, I’ve found I have a lot more time to work on my counted cross-stitch (a hobby of mine), and with this, it’s nice to have something going on in the background.  Read:  television.  I’ve discovered all kinds of shows I never heard of which I’ve enjoyed, and some which are just drivel to fill space.  Had I not decided to look for this, though, I wouldn’t know these at all. 

Food is another obvious one – we all have things we think we don’t like (see The Open Food Mind for more on this) and things we formerly didn’t like.  But we sometimes forget that our tastes in food, as many other things, change over time.  There are things which aren’t likely – I can’t tolerate the texture of oatmeal or rice pudding, for example – and others which might.  For example, one of my mother’s sisters lived with us for a time when I was young, and was firmly convinced she hated mushrooms.  My mother snuck them into everything.  (ok, almost everything).  Soon, her sister learned that she did like mushrooms, and I believe she still puts them into much of her cooking.  When I was very young, I didn’t like cheese.  Cheese!  This changed by my early teens, and it’s now one of the things I miss most in my gluten-and-dairy-free world.

These seem like trivial things – after all, many in the world live without television, mushrooms, cheese, and more.  They’re examples, though, of the bigger things in life which we can learn to appreciate.  I didn’t realize until I joined Toastmasters that I really enjoy public speaking – until recently, I thought it was something I’d never like.  I still don’t love gardening or cleaning – though if I’m sufficiently stressed, you can still find me scrubbing baseboards with a toothbrush.

There are so many wonderful things in our world to appreciate – new cuisines, ideas, hobbies, or simply the beautiful weather outside.  Today’s lesson?  What new wonder can you add to your world?  Maybe it’s a walk in a place you haven’t yet explored, or that restaurant on the corner you haven’t tried because you didn’t like that cuisine 30 years ago.

Go on, try something new.  Look past your door or window, and see what’s interesting out there!