Why is it that we can only truly appreciate what we have when it's gone? We can’t truly feel love until it slips through our fingers; we can’t miss that old beat up sweater until we place it in the trashcan; we can only feel remorse for losing, when what we had is already gone.
Past is past, present is present, and future is future. What we have now gets blurred by the lines of a false reality. We want the newest sports car, easily thinking of our old Honda Civic sitting in the driveway, but when we sell that beat up car, we start to miss the little things. We miss the way the engine sputters when we go to crank it, the way you have to give it a little gas just to purr into life, or even the way the roofing peels down from the ceiling, tickling the back of your neck.
Why don’t we appreciate what we have? Of course, we can think that the grass is always greener, but what happens when it’s not? What happens when we tell a lover that we no longer have feelings for them, or throw out a cell phone just because the newest edition hit the market, or leave a pair of shoes that hold your foot's imprint on the doorstep of the Goodwill?
Maybe we long to be something that we are not; maybe we long to find out what we are. Each pass of these “little things” makes our heart a little heavier and our vocal tone a little more somber.
Striving for direction takes away from our appreciation of the daily current, making us feel dedicated to what we can get next… Instead of making us enthusiastic of what we have sitting in our hands. No one wants to hold something so tight that it becomes smothered, but we never ever get to this point.
It is apparent that we can’t smother anything, or hold anything close to our hearts, because we are already searching for the next best thing. Whether it is a boyfriend, a book, an old backpack, or whatever, we don’t really see the positives until they are already behind us.
How do we devote ourselves to what we have, instead of what we want to have? Quite simply, appreciate what is there until it crumbles in your hand. Love, until there is no love to give; wear your Nikes, until there is a wide gaping hole in the bottom; feel the wind, instead of feeling the burden that it causes.
In today’s society, we have the chance to experience an ever-changing world. The world takes shape around us and quickly turns into something completely new. This makes it difficult for us to see what is there.
Distortion takes what we need and mends it with what we want.
Based on social norms, we want to fit in and feel accepted in some group. Acceptance, in the modern world, has come with the price of owning all the recent tangible items that come out on the market. Acceptance takes what we have and what we enjoy, and turns it into what they have and what they enjoy.
Rejection hurts (and acceptance is great and all) but think of everything we reject for acceptance; the shoes, the coat, the bike. Our real life needs a chance; give it one, before our dedication to finding out what’s next, turns the present into the future; being awake versus fast asleep; kissing your grandmother while she is alive, instead of kissing her tombstone; seeing what you are, instead of thinking about what you should be.
