In the Details

Towards the end of my semester in Oxford, I tread the trails to and from lecture with submission. It was essential, it was doable. The walk had become familiar, and even though it was still long and tedious and, after a while, mundane, it was also a chance for me to think and listen to good music and get some exercise.

Since it had become part of my daily ritual, part of my quotidian flow one might say, it became nonspecial in its transitionality. It was a necessary part of traveling from point A to point B.

So I trudged along and anticipated the hot tea I would make when I got back home. I stared at the sodden trail and kept an ear open for passing bikes. I kept my head down and my feet moving.

Boring, right?

Right. It definitely could be.

But sometimes in the midst of ritual and mundane, I would look up for an instant over the bridge I was crossing and catch a glimpse like this:


Or I'd take a new path, and I'd see this:

Or I'd get to walk to tutorial at just the right time to catch the sunset illuminating the spires in the distance, turning this:


into this:


You know what I realized? This blog was like that, too. Sure, most of it is mundane and tedious, but when you look up and pay attention, you can witness unexpected and startling beauty.