The brain is an interesting organ....

The brain is an interesting organ. Let’s see, my serotonin could be whacked out, perhaps I’m tired, oh or maybe I’ve slipped into a mildly delusional state where my hemispheric operation is clouded. I suppose I feel aggressively melancholy. In some ways I have chosen not to make a choice, which really is a choice but an indolent and feeble choice nevertheless.

 

Frequent shifts in emotion can be a normal experience.

 

As I drove home this evening I observed an older man on a motorcycle. I methodically watched as he weaved in and out of traffic with an almost whimsical ease. His long gray hair, partially covered in a weathered bandana, fluttered as the wind blew around his face. And then for a moment my soul longed for the freedom he must have felt. For a few moments, all logic, caution and fear that normally accompanies my perspective about motorcycle ownership, was gone. I was, for a few, brief moments with this man, feeling his exhilaration, excitement, freedom and peace of being alone united with the elements and riding into the sunset. Well, maybe not into the sunset, but at least into the evening as the sun lowered into the west, which leads me to a reoccurring thought I have from time to time. And it’s not really a thought but more of an emotion, mixed with memory and sprinkled with sensory stimulation. Certain times of the year, during specific segments of the day, always when I am outside I have an experience so pleasant and calming I delight with inescapable peace. Often the simple act of watching the foliage on an old oak tree sway in the warm, sweet summer breeze can hearken me back to a childhood memory of playing hide and seek till dusk with childhood friends. Or the smell of a humid, summer evening, I call to mind memories of young adulthood when the possibility and hope of my future seemed so eternal and electrifying. It’s these fleeting moments that leave me in a reverie, tranquil and lost in thought. Really life is all about these moments, the small but memory laden moments. I have a thousand of these “moments” and with each step I take towards a greater appreciation for my life I also gather more of these and I suppose at the end of the day this is the emotional refuge that I take cover. Maybe this is joy, the fruit that bears on the tree of a rich spiritual life.