As you might already know (or if you are new to The Chicago Files, welcome!) I talk a lot about my observations, findings, and musings from a day-to-day perspective. It’s fascinating to me that human beings can literally have something right in front of them and never actually ‘see’ it. It is a strange concept, don’t you think? We tend to think if something is plunked right in front of us we must be able to observe it. Not so, really. Case in point: the above photo is of a charming building in downtown Evanston, Illinois. I have walked down this street dozens upon dozens of times and swear I’ve never seen this building before!
On one particular day this past week didn’t I actually embrace it into my awareness! Lo and behold, I was grinning from ear to ear with my ‘new’ find! I see that it was constructed in 1902, lovely architectural design, and bears the name, “Simpson” at the top. Try as I might, I couldn’t find any history about this beautiful structure. I’ll have to do more exploring to see if I can find out about it.
Once again, I am reminded to be open to surroundings and how incredibly rich and rewarding it can be to stay in a mindset of openness as opposed to mired in a teeny tiny phone device, distracted by the latest video game or cat video. I mentioned ‘rewarding’; well, for me that day it was also monetarily rewarding. Keeping with the mindset of observing my world as opposed to merely existing in it, didn’t I look down and find a twenty and a one dollar bill! I’m certain if I had been like the 20 or more other people looking at their phones walking along that sidewalk I’d have missed the ‘greenbacks’ as well. Truth be told, the ‘new’ building find was much more rewarding, but the irony of ‘richness in one’s midst’ was not lost on the grateful sidewalk find.
Here’s to a weekend filled with rewards and happiness of all kinds!
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