The Smell Of Basil

Zoe just cooked the perfect batch of pancakes and now I’m sitting in my room breathing in the fresh basil that sits in a jar on my bookshelf. Days off from our normal jobs can be so liberating for your heart. You could spend all day in your crusty pajamas or you could look at your freedom as an adventure to be created. Sometimes the simple surroundings of your home town can bring the new perspectives that you have needed for some time.

After coming home from overseas I’ve spent the last few weeks really making a conscious effort to make the most of my free time and to look for the possibilities of each day. I don’t think that God really intended us to be so busy that we missed out on the beautiful things around us, He wanted His flowers to be smelt and wondered at and the ocean to roar in our ears. So with these things on my mind I ventured outdoors and took a bus.

Living by the sea is an amazing privilege and fortunately for me my town is full of creative people. As you walk down the main street, close to the art school the alleyways are covered in art. Though the majority can sometimes be very average and it can all seem like a mess, but then you find a small idea to be cherished, a tiny stencil of Batman and Robin scaling the window of a run down shop front. Someone had put that there for it to be found, not necessarily in plain sight. The little characters make you smile at the idea of super heroes and their representation of good overcoming evil in the regular city streets.

Sometimes you need to sit on your own with a good soy chai warming your insides to appreciate your own thoughts and the ideas of your heart. As I sat sipping my drink at a café the other day, a man walked by under the window I was sitting at with a box full of fresh basil. The smell overcame me, therefore leading to my new pleasure of leaving basil in my bedroom with the hope of making vego pasta with it later this week. The oil tankers on the horizon seem strangely romantic and normally I would never notice these things because I am rarely on my own.

Simple things can always relieve the complicated things of our days, and there is always greatness reflected in the scenery around us. We should really be taking more days off, and it does not mean you’re being lazy. What new things can be created to leave your mark in a public place? Beauty is created to be given away and then you need to seek it out again.