Live for the Aesthetics
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you are wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” — Neil Gaiman.
One thing about me is that I love aesthetics. I will do something simply for the beauty of it. Like take an iced latte in the middle of July when it’s freezing cold (I would not recommend this guys). If you ask me, there is some fulfillment to be found in living for the aesthetics, however miniscule. You get to observe the beauty around you, when otherwise you wouldn’t have. Like the way the rain trickles on the side of the window during your morning commute, or the way the moon shines on a particularly clear night. I especially love looking at the moon and I think it’s sort of an unspoken intimacy to go moon-gazing with a friend or a lover.
Sometimes we tend to close ourselves off to our inner child. We have become too caught up in careers and success and looking like we got our shit together, and all the while our inner child is telling us to just have some fun. As you’ve probably heard a million times, “It’s not that serious”. And that’s what living for the aesthetics is all about. Whatever I am doing right now may not be beneficial monetary or otherwise, but I’m still going to do it because these are the little pockets of moments that fill your soul up. These are the moments that make you feel that life is beautiful and worth living. These are the moments of good madness.
I always tell my friends that if I was paid to read books, I would never be sad a day in my life. I find absolute joy in reading books. I don’t need anyone to pay me to do it but that would be a plus. What I’m trying to say is, we all have that one thing that we enjoy so much that we get lost in it. But since no one is paying us to do it, we shelve it and soon it becomes some itch at the back of our minds that we just can’t reach. I’m not one to give advice but if you take one thing from this, let it be that you need to make time for the things you love. And not just things but people. Let your life be filled with those little pockets of joy that you can look back to at the end of the day and smile. Be so in love with your life that you don’t need an escape from it.
As Neil Gaiman says, I hope somewhere in the next year or the next half of this year, you surprise yourself. I hope you step out of your comfort zone and make some magic happen. I hope you stop talking yourself out of doing the things that you really want to do, or know you should be doing. I hope you convince yourself that you are capable of doing the hard things. I hope you believe that you are deserving of all the good things that you are working towards. And I hope you know that life is beautiful and tough times never last.
