When you first look at Taipei it appears to a jumble of concrete, an unhinged collage of brick, sheet metal, and confusion. To the unaccustomed eye it looks like chaos. But if you look deeper, just like when we inquire in the storm and confusion of our own lives, there is unexpected beauty and more often than not, surprise.
Nature expands in circles and cycles. Seeds aren’t square; they’re oval, round or starburst pentagons. Roots, branches and rivers wander and bifurcate, and everything living is always in motion. We imagine straight lines, but those exist only in our minds. There is no such thing in the wild.
We are sold the image of vitality as that of youth and physical vigor. It’s true there is a physical substrate to being whole-heartedly embodied in this world, but vitality is far more than a photogenic body.Vitality comes from our bones, our spirit, from an indomitable will to engage the world with feet solidly planted on the ground.
Discounting our quirks is easy. We write them off as the residue from a particular kind of childhood or traumatizing experience. But if you look under the surface of your opinion about yourself, you’ll find something luminous, mysterious — and more often than not — completely unexpected.