A glimpse from the road or finding inspiration in the dull and the common-place

There is not much beauty traveling on the roads of Vietnam. Pale and dusty weather-beaten houses. Crumbling, dirty, one exactly like the next. Trees- some green, some with rusty dried-up leaves. Muddy rice fields. Littered up villages. Road works, electricity posts and unfinished building sites. Stalls, stalls, stalls. An occasional group of school kids with their usual uniform of white shirt and red neck scarf. The same sky we have now been seeing for weeks- foggy, dusty gray-blue. Flat landscape, both in appearance and in spirit. And yet...

And yet when my eyes have rested on this for some time a great joy takes over. Suddenly the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary. The dull turns vivid and the road that mere moments ago was simply another obligatory rocking on the bus to reach the next destination becomes an end to itself.

Yes- of course we are on a journey of freedom and adventure and its easy to recognize the beauty of that state. Yes- the road is life. Always changing, always moving on, never standing still for a moment. There is a lot of beauty also in that impermanence.

But it seems that it is precisely the mundane and the boredom of having nothing else to do but to simply observe the mundane which has somehow transformed everything and left nothing but a pure light feeling of joyful wonder of the journey, the everyday life and sights. Exactly as they are without the need for something more, some kind of embellishment.

And just then will come a gorgeous strip of curvy mountain roads. Just then I'll catch a glimpse of the ocean, lovely fields where the graceful water-buffaloes walk ever so slowly. Yet now there are no separate sights as opposed to a uniform vision. Nothing is more beautiful or special than anything else. Everything is a miracle. Perhaps sometimes it takes boredom to get inspired and the absolutely ordinary to open our eyes to the miracle of it all.