Unremarkably Human

Remarkable. When most people hear or read the word remarkable their minds tend to wander to extremes.

Even now, writing this, I started thinking of the most remarkable things to write or state. It was almost as though a latent narcissistic, social media driven culture had swept over me and made me want to write down something soo extreme and exciting or invigorating that I could have something that others may view as "remarkable”.

To me, what is truly remarkable is found in the everyday, moment to moment happenings. The beauty in simplicity if you will.

Writing about such grandeur events would be an inaccurate misrepresentation of my life and character. Hand picking a select few situations, where I did something brave to help someone I didn’t know, volunteered or by glorifying one of my adventures to some foreign lands would be misleading. The truly “remarkable” things people do often turn into a self fulfilling brag point in their lives, that you get to hear over and over at every get together. These events that initially create a rush of being in awe, eventually illicit a response the materializes in an eye roll. This happens because we cling to those few high points the makes us out to be the paragon of humankind, which none of us truly are.

That route was initially tempting, even for myself.

However I think I will take a path that I walk in life, as opposed to the noble, self-idolizing high road that our “like” crazed, dopamine driven society has snowballed into.

The path is literally a path, one I walk, or bike daily to commute to and from work. Through the 40km winds, snow, rain or the odd sunny day, I always find it refreshing and energizing to leave an hour or two early for work, with no rush, and begin my journey to work. The commute could be a ten minute bike ride ore half an hour walk if I needed. However I always like to stop and relax on benches or take a moment to stretch, or even slow down and just enjoy the ride.

I end up getting to work, energized and inspired and in a much better mood than when I drive. Something about the fresh air and lack of traffic and people just makes me feel more alive and aware while at work. Connected. It’s a walk I still make to this day.

Unremarkable yeah? I know.

The real fun happens after work. 3 am, the world is quite, the traffic is all done and the world is asleep; Just me an the moon lit sky. I long for these moments, and it’s why I will always be a night owl I imagine. it’s peaceful and serene.

The magical moment was a group of people I would always walk by huddles around a fire on the cooler autumn nights. Maybe 5-10 people huddled around a fire. I used to do what most people do, keep walking and have the blinders on simple avoidance for some paranoid reason.

That changed one night. I was walking home, having a smoke of some herb that I will leave unnamed, one now legal in Canada. As I was passing by I decided “F*** it.” I’m gonna do it, so I walked over and asked if anyone would like to share.

I sat down in the circle of strangers that say there every night through the crisp autumn nights, shared what I had and in return they shared their stories. Each taking a turn with the herbal, cone rolled conch. It was a simple exchange, but one I think of often.

In the fall of 2017 this became my Autumn ritual on the walk home from work.

It wasn’t remarkable, it was real; it was human. Unremarkably Human.