Showing Me By Just Existing

I'd believe in anything, were it not for you. Showing me by just existing, only this is true. -Elton John

I have been doing my spring cleaning belatedly. While organizing my movie collection, I stumbled upon the old film I used to love: the animated El Dorado from DreamWorks Pictures. Dusting off the case, I couldn't help popping it in, watching it in the background as I continued my much overdo apartment overhaul.

I loved this movie as a child; the concept of finding unknown lands and having adventures was one that appealed to me strongly. I connected with Miguel and his need for exploration in life. He wasn't simply satisfied staying in Spain. He was the idealist, the optimist, the explorer. One scene resonated with me in particular: "Without Question" performed by Elton John.

Before long, my apartment cleaning sat abandoned as I pondered the implications set up in the song and the scene. As children, it is part of our nature to explore. We want to know. We are curious. As we grow older, many of us lose that. At times in my life, I've sensed myself growing restless, yearning for a new place or a new challenge. I feel so like Miguel in many ways. I think back to all my countryside explorations as a child and how they really aren't so different from the ways I explore in life today.

Showing Me By Just Existing

The gravel lot across the street from my early childhood home. The go-cart trails in the shelterbelt of my first country home. The open wheat fields with lone, towering cottonwoods on the farm. The park with its winding bike trails by the river. The hidden playgrounds of the neighborhood.

The commonality: places I had overlooked, in my childhood, youth, and teenager years. There's always something hiding where you least expect it. New paths to be explored, seemingly hidden treasures amongst the "mundane" of life.

They are showing me by just existing, they are real. They are meant to be sought out. They are there. And I hope to find more hidden treasures in life, even if it isn't actually El Dorado itself.

Those adventures exist. Seek them out, my friends.