Insatiable

Why do we get bored so easily? Maybe this is not a common experience, but I have been realizing lately how quickly I tire of things that at one time ignited me. At this time last year I had figured out a new way to tie my scarves and I thought "Yes, this really feels like a style that fits me. I think I look great!" Now, I just feel frumpy in my scarves. I have been trying to shake things up a bit by stepping out bald a little more often. But even that is getting old. Well, the looks and comments are getting old (strange comments from strange men--that's in the next post).

Even this blog--a couple months ago I felt like I was bursting with postworthy material. Now, in case you haven't noticed, I have total writer's block.

I realize that, in my case, this boredom is often actually a type of fatigue. When I find a new interest, I go hard after it. I obsess, I ruminate, I max it out. I don't have sustainable outlets. My outlets end up draining more than I needed to "get out".

But sometimes I really do just feel bored. I mentioned in a previous post that I have been doing Instagram. For awhile I was on it all the time, in awe of the tiny scenes I was holding in my hand: amazing sunsets on the beach, black and whites of the streets of Paris, close ups of delicate flowers, blah blah blah. After a few weeks every photo has started to look the same. How can it be that the same pictures taking my breath away weeks earlier are now making me yawn?

How can someone married to, say, Jennifer Lopez, ever get tired of seeing such a perfectly beautiful face? Sadly, we all know that husbands and wives sometimes act in ways that appear to indicate boredom with their spouses. If not boredom, then a breakdown in their ability to see the beauty they used to see.

It's a shame, really. It's like we're never satisfied. Is it because, deep down, we know we're made for a lot more beauty than anything we've yet seen? Or is it because we try to handle overwhelming beauty in ways we can control, thus cheapening it?

Food for thought tonight. I challenge you to think of something that used to be a source of beauty and is now collecting dust, figuratively or literally. Take another look and see what has always been there.

Sometimes "beauty redefined" is simply beauty remembered.