The buzz of the alarm starts the day like clockwork. If you’re lucky several snooze cycles later you’ll find yourself starting your morning routine just like any other day. While your morning motivation is off brewing in the kitchen you can’t help but try to shake this awkward feeling that something is off and always was. As you look at the mirror one last time before heading out the front door you take in this quiet, uninterrupted moment. It’s not to check to see if you missed a spot shaving, or if there is still sleep in your eye, or even if your fly is wide open (but you do all of those things anyway and are grateful that you did). 

 

In the mirror your reflection is staring back at you and this is one of those times you truly take it all in.  Brushstrokes of yourself come through in waves breaking against the rocky shores of your senses. 

 

But which you do you see? 

 

At first glance you may just see your appearance. The carefully constructed avatar you choose to visually present yourself to the world around you. Where every nuisance speaks well beyond its means.

 

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Or on a deeper level you see all versions of yourself at once: the past, present, and potential you. The first two you are familiar with and know all too well. But the potential you is the elusive version of yourself that is always just slightly out of reach beyond your periphery. 

 

But with so many different lives to live how can you even choose?

 

It would be like tuning into different frequencies of your own daydream radio. Each turn of the dial will patch you into a station that embodies another you, fully realized and all. A flip of the switch will let you channel surf through different iterations of your subconscious self.

 

You can either find yourself empowered with the idea of these limitless possibilities or become completely crippled by it. 

 

But life will always tend to lend itself to anyone perceptive and patient enough to pay attention to it. It will take the form of a more organic and inexplicable feeling that transcends the confines of a definition. It’s the intuition you feel that pushes you in the direction your natural instincts will guide you. 

 

This moment, quiet and uninterrupted passes in the blink of an eye, but its influence ripples out ever present in everything you do.

Contemplations

BY JASON GARELICK

OVER MORNING COFFEE