Welcome to The Quantum Temple

I have a kitten asleep on my left shoulder. The head, shoulder and arms of a black kitten, to be exact, and the rest of her is stretched out on top of the couch cushion behind and next to me. Some of you are thinking to yourself, "aw, how cute." The rest of you, who are thinking, "grow a pair, chief, you're getting soft in your old age" can kiss my ass. If you could hear the purr that's rumbling in my ear, at this very moment, you'd be joining the first group. For a minute, I closed my eyes and was able to simply be in the moment. I'm so grateful for that.

Events in our lives don't have to be momentous in order to be appreciated. Everyone can look back on a moment in time, that may or may not precede or follow a momentous event, and think to yourself, "I wish it had lasted forever." It's those forever moments that we truly live for, not the adrenaline rush that accompanies a frenzy of activity or the lethargy that we experience when our resources are all used up. However brief, we all appreciate true serenity.

Don't believe me? Look at advertising. Television ads abound that show a woman sitting alone at a small table with half a bagel lathered with cream cheese, a half cup of coffee steaming next to it with the morning paper folded in half next to it. She leans forward, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, savoring the... whatever, and is prepared to face a wonderful day. Or what about the ads where a man stands at the top of the mountain that he's just climbed. He closes his eyes and you can see how the setting sun warms his face as he smiles. Then they throw in a comment about erectile dysfunction and ruin the whole scene, for those of us surprised by that kind of thing, but you get the picture.

Serenity doesn't come during moments of stress or heightened states of anxiety. Neither does it happen when we're feeling particularly melancholy or downright sad. It happens at unexpectedly mediocre times when we have little to worry about, even less to get excited about and we have time to look around and appreciate our immediate environment. People used to love saying, "stop and smell the roses" but never slow down long enough to do so.

Henry David Thoreau, while walking through his beloved Walden Woods, understood this fact, perfectly.

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."

I have started this blog because I find myself appreciating the fine line I ride between extremes. To me, all of life is a paradox. It is both good and bad, light and dark, happy and sad, altogether. The amazing thing is that the blacks and whites only blend into greys when I'm standing too far back or moving too fast to appreciate the details. If I take the time to stop, lean forward and concentrate on a tiny moment I notice breathtakingly beautiful patterns and designs I would otherwise have missed. I am learning to take that and share it. So, welcome to The Quantum Temple, where I hope to help all of you zoom in on those wonderful moments and help them to last a long, long time.