… But every now and then I enter, as though through some magnificent mind-portal, a realm of absolute wonder. That is, I walk around the place with a small, dippy grin in a dream-like state (though I suspect I am in these moments more awake than ever), in absolute amazement of the minutae of the world around me. Sometimes this happens after meditation (or, as I call it ‘mediprayer’, which sounds, fittingly, somewhat medical and if you ask me to explain what I do it will take ages and probably involve waffling anecdotes about decisive inner voices, feathers & moving jewellery) or just a really good writing sesh. The feeling of abundance is overwhelming and difficult to properly integrate; it’s a state so enormous it makes me laugh, and makes me feel so hilariously insignificant at the same time as (crucially) very loved/cared for.

The things I appreciate are often other people’s inventions, and those things (which are often everything) that make me feel particularly supported, lucky or abundant as a recipient, in unrestrained awe of everyone else around me or who has come before me.

Some examples of things I find particularly wonderful, now and then:

• The fact that someone once thought it would be cool to communicate with others who aren’t physically proximal, and so came up with the idea of putting little boxes in various places on streets into which you can post your missives AND THEN ALSO the fact that there are structures and systems in place for these letters to be taken to the right person, just for fun, just because you feel like it.
• The fact that someone once thought it was sad that feet got cold and dirty, so came up with this idea of melding and shaping fabric and other materials, just so your feet don’t have to touch the ground when you walk around outside… the fact that this is completely normal, and completely hilarious.
• Someone once thought it would be really nice to be able to not have to stand up, yet, on the other hand, not sit on the ground, and so came up with a halfway house, whereby you sort of bend your body a bit and hover midway, without having to actually hover; thus a chair was created and was multiplied and re-envisioned until chairs litter the world with their marvellous, utterly mundane ingenuity.
• Baskets (also: bags). Someone once thought it would be nice to be able to carry more than your actual hands could carry in one go, and so to save multiple trips, magicked up a thing with a handle, which you can hold or swing under your arm, to carry lots of things in so that the things you’ve collected are easily portable and with you in various places or can be carried from one place to another.
• Lamps. Because why not control the apportionment of ACTUAL LIGHT?
• Flowers, which undoubtedly exist in their own right for their own purposes (and those of insects/bees), but also literally for us to decorate our lives with; to notice on the sides of roads, in other people’s gardens, and dolloped anywhere that adds a bit of visual interest.
• Tables; because sometimes the ground is just slightly too low.
• Trees, casually breathing out the stuff we need to breathe in.
• Zebra crossings, which were obviously designed by a committee whose members couldn’t agree on a colour, but who were unanimous in that getting from one side of the road to another should be safe and simple and not a big deal, and that we shouldn’t die trying.
• Water coming from taps. Mindblowing. Enough said.

… I’ll stop. You get the idea.

I once read an article about loneliness which said that if ever you start to feel alone in the world, or that no one cares about you, it can help to think of all the systems in place which were created and designed to support your existence. (This is a really good thing to remember when your electricity bill comes and is nearly £700.) In the current moment or throughout history, we’re all connected, in even the most abstract of ways; and sometimes, for a small moment, just remembering that is enough.