THE BEAUTY OF SIMPLICITY

When all is said and done, it can be surprising the things that actually make you happy. Like lying in bed on a Saturday morning, looking out the window. Listening to cars passing outside. Watching people from the verandah - teenagers walking hand in hand, neighbors coming home from work. The smell of plantain frying. Making a cup of milo. Brushing against each other, as she reaches for a plate and you reach for some sugar. Nothing electric. Yet deeply comforting. Like sharing the couch in the evening - head on an armrest, eyes on the TV; she’s curled up on the other side, leafing through a magazine. The occasional word exchanged. But the silence sits well between you.

It is true. We don’t live on peaks. That’s not where we build our homes. Not on peaks of passion. This Life is not a flurry of fast-moving scenes. It slows down a lot. After the club, after the party, between dusk and dawn, when the movie ends; it falls into this valley of ordinariness that goes on for hours and days, for weeks and months. Yes, even years. The topography of Love. Moments of rapture separated by days of routine. The sun rising and falling, without fanfare, but turning the world around and around. That’s what I’ve found. That Love is not a perpetual high. But it turns the world around and around. Like sitting at the table after work and sharing a good laugh. Priceless.

And that is the irony – people asking us ‘out’, when all we really want is someone we can stay in with. But the spectacle is always so attractive - the swinging hips; the baritone voice; the alluring promise of a smoking hot evening. Everything else seems to pale in comparison. And haven’t we all been told that ‘boring’ is bad? If we’re unlucky, we slug through miles of nonsense before it dawns on us – they lied. Boring is bliss. As blissful as waking up on a Saturday morning, without eye-liner or lipstick, your old hairnet pulled down to the middle of your forehead, no plan for the weekend - but happy. And if you’ve found someone you can share a moment like that with then, honestly, you are doubly blessed.