The simple things in life that are amazing and overlooked
 

What are some simple things in life that are amazing to you that are often not appreciated or overlooked by people? Everyone loves video games, music, sex, etc, but I'm talking about the simple things we take for granted from day to day.

Today it was 65 degrees in Philly today and it felt so good outside. Sometimes you don't appreciate the weather until you come off of an extreme. Going from the mid 30's to the mid 60's makes it that much more obvious. I just took a walk today with the perfect air blowing in my face. It was so relaxing and felt great. It is going to be in the 60's for one more day so I'm going to enjoy another stroll tomorrow. Wearing shorts in the winter is definitely not something I'm used to.

There are so many things that we never think about, but truly are great. What are some of the things you love?

Scenery. There are just some people who can't appreciate good, awe-inspiring scenery when it's right there in front of them.

Agreed. That is a great one. I want to go to Alberta, Canada one day simply for the scenery.

Silence. For the longest time I felt really weird if there wasn't anything going on, I felt the need to do something to fill the void. Now that I'm a little older and a bit more mature I really appreciate just being quiet sometimes. It's also hard to find a quiet moment in busy schedules and the fast pace of today but being quiet every now and then really eases the mind. For me, at least.

Unfortunately in the middle of LA you don't get much of that. Just long endless fields of cement. As one of my friends called it "my cement prison".

I appreciate O2 a lot. It does a lot for me.

Home. People take a place to go back to at the end of the day for granted until a) they have to pay for it themselves, or b) they lose it.

I absolutely love rainy days. I usually go outside and like to see and hear the rain falling. I think it makes me peaceful in some way and a little melancholic, which I think is good sometimes.

Why people hate rain is beyond me. People like to shower, go to the beach and stuff, but they can't stand rain.

Fresh bed sheets and duvet just after a long hot bath. Clean socks. Good conversation which isn't based on pleasantries. A home cooked meal.
These are just a few I have come to appreciate most over the last year or so.

I'm all about finding the wonders and joys of the most mundane and ordinary aspects life.

For example, I find that not many people stop and look up at the sky enough in the day. It doesn't matter whether it is completely clear or depressingly overcast, there's a lot of space to just stop and gaze at, and especially during the dawn and dusk periods, the sky become far more dynamic and brilliant as the colors change across the horizon.

There's a certain joy in an urban setting. Many people look at the paved streets and the stone buildings in downtown as being cold and uninviting. But if you look at it the way I do, you can see an overlooked art form. I love going into, and looking at the outside of older buildings here in Winnipeg. Back in the day when they built buildings a little more for looks as opposed to practicality and uniformity. If they wanted a curved front, then the stair case behind that curved wall got smaller. Trying to imagine the tedious and intricate work put into the fancy stonework pattern on the front of the building. You can see where a window was taken out and filled in with bricks, or where bricks were taken out to form a window. Those little things can help one to extrapolate some history from the building. Why did they need a window there? Or why did they build the staircase there, instead of over here? When I'm downtown waiting for buses, or even while traveling through on the bus, I am always entertained by examining buildings and thinking of all these little things. But most people can't understand the fascination.

Roads.

I like forested paths, and I enjoy mountain trails, but roads never get the love they need. You may enjoy driving, but you can't drive unless there's a road. Some people have favorite trails, like the Appalaichan Trail. Well I have favorite roads, like the Trans-Canadian Highway 1 in British Columbia, or California State Highway 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway).

It's more than cement, it's more than asphalt, it's more than painted lines on solid pavement. After all, you don't have to leave the road to go off the beaten path.

I'm a sucker for scenery, whether it be an ocean, a sunrise/sunset, or the wilderness.

When I came back from the North Sea, I had lots of pictures and recorded stuff (camera doubled as a primitive video recorder). My father and mother absolutely loved the scenery. I had sunrises, sunsets, footage of a rough rainstorm out at sea (pictures didn't come out right), and also filmed stuff from when I was riding back to Amsterdam after getting onshore (windmills, farmland, etc).

My parents and awesome grandfather enjoyed them (my father in particular. We share interests on this stuff). I then was told to show my grandparents when I visited them (they live locally), and, as I figured, they didn't give two shits about it. I could see their eyes wandering the whole time and they kept talking about random things. I just said screw it and said "that's all" when I had only just begun. I also showed my uncle (mother's side of the family once again) and I got the same reaction out of him. My mom's side of the family lacks anyone who enjoys nature, and that's one of the things about them that bugs me.

I was stuck in heavily urbanized parts of Austin and Houston at a few points in time (over a week) and it really bugged me, as I didn't have a forest or anything of the sort to intrigue me. Duck out of water is the best analogy, I do believe.

It's pretty rural where I live. Even in the 'downtown' areas there isn't much in the way of urban development, which is kinda nice, I'll grant, but can also be kinda dull. When I visited one of my friends in Boston two years ago, I took a metro to the heart of the city from a smaller town in east Massachucetts, traveling underground most of the way. When we got out to the city, I was awestruck. Up until this point, I had never seen a building over 30 stories, but huge skyscrapers lined every side the street here, with office complexes and stores taking up all the gaps. I looked like a total goof standing there with my neck bent back trying to see the tops of all of them, but a big city to me is like a gigantic art decor piece with hundreds of massive parts. Some moving, some stationary, but it's like a living monument to human engineering, mathematics, construction, and social patterns.

One of the big things I've always really liked was the Moon. It's never out of the public consciousness or anything, but when you stop to think about it, the Moon is pretty amazing. It's big, it's bright, and it hangs over top of us every night with no one taking immediate notice. Imagine if something else of equal size and luminousness just appear out of nowhere in the sky - we'd be pretty freaked out! It's also old. Real old. Like, on a cosmic scale. The same moon we look at has been in the same place and viewed by human kind for the entirety of our existence. Before that, Dinosaurs looked at it, and before that, plankton and nautili swam around under its light in a global ocean. If the Moon could talk, just imagine what it could tell us. I know it's a rock, I know it's made up of dust and sediment and full of scarring craters and possibly green cheese, but I've always really liked it.

So, what you're saying is.. imagine if Sass hung out way up in the sky? Scary thought.
<3 Sass.

I think public transportation is overlooked, and is a pretty amazing, if necessary, aspect of city life.

In Chicago thousands of people daily use the trains and buses and are completely dependent on it. So many take it for granted, but once a train gets delayed for five minutes people get pissed off and start bashing the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority). Um hello? Seriously, you're putting your time and life into the hands of public transportation: you have no right to bitch when you get delayed.

Crawling into bed after a hard day and passing the shit out. The ability to fall asleep, stay asleep and to wake up rested is really amazing and kind of overlooked except for people who can't afford the luxury (insomnia, graveyard shift, medical condition that effects your sleep, etc.)

Also grass. Really nice grass is great. Even crappy grass still has its charms.

I have to agree with scenery being one of the most amazing yet one of the most overlooked things in our life. For me, almost anything can be eye candy, I like watching both the gray scenery in a busy city or the scenery far out in the country, pretty much anything goes. I love "feeling" the surroundings around me, using all of my senses as good as I can to get a feel of my surroundings. It gives me a feeling of connection with the world around me, it makes me feel more alive.

Speaking of Scenery, I collect pictures of Scenery. I have an entire folder dedicated to Scenic photos and pictures. Close to 300MB in size actually.

I never really knew for a long time that I enjoyed scenery as much as I do now, but over time I began to just collect pictures off the internet of Landscapes, City skylines, beaches, mountain ranges, etc., There's a fine mix between real-world photos and drawn / digital art of landscapes, so it being real isn't exactly a hindrance or a requirement.

Another simple pleasure is falling asleep after a long day at work, at like 10-11 in the morning (If you work Graveyard shift that is)

For some reason, I actually find myself randomly staring up at the sky while I'm walking just contemplating and appreciating whatever. This is also paired with a nice deep breath and the whole process is actually quick and refreshing.


This will probably sound incredibly cheesy but I appreciate my close friends very much. It's so nice to be able to think that I can count on them for basically anything and vice versa, especially contrasting with everyone else; friends who are not as close. The closest friends are not only friends in passing, "hi" friends, friends you've met for group purposes, facebook friends, etc. Simply genuine ones =$

Honesty.

In a world fueled by bullshit, it's always a pleasant surprise.

Waking up early is something that itself is amazing and overlooked by a generation of allnighters and midnight junkies. Today I woke up at 3pm (the allergies made me do it), and its a terrible feeling knowing that the day is pretty much wasted. To wake up at 8pm, go jogging, then come home and shower and play games before noon while feeling awake and knowing you have plenty of time left is pretty awesome too.

Well, heck a lot of things, some are already mentioned above.

I like the rain and complete silence. The rain, especially when it falls during a hectic busy day, almost feels like it is soothing the body and mind. I like the idea of walking in the rain, especially when it is raining cats and dogs. Most of my pals says that it is a bit childish, considering I'm a sophomore and I'm 18, but what the hell. Walking in the rain helps me refresh my mind, ease all the burdens, and satisfy my hunger of things little children do.

Complete silence also helps me a lot. Maybe it is because I'm a bit introvert, but silence helps to develop a good thinking and boosts imagination, thus it works when I need something new to do or write. Plus, a good reminescence is supported since there is no disturbances. Though it is not good for studying and working (I always get asleep in no minutes).

The sky is also wondrous. I always find myself staring into the sky at anytime. I don't care if the sky is blue, grey, or even reddish-purple; as long I have the sky to stare and gaze at, it is enough. But I like the graceful emotion of the grey clouds the most.

Additional stuff: I like the feeling of the wind when it touches my skin. Even though it may not be a gentle breeze, I still like it. It makes me feel relaxed and forget all things making me angry or sad. To feel the wind is like telling a burden to a friend for me. The same effect as walking in the rain.

Well, I like to focus on simple little things people around me would never notice, so there is still a lot unwritten here.

It's wonderful to see so many people appreciate the small things about scenery and nature. Not to sound like some tree hugging hippie, but from what I've seen most people don't stop to watch simple scenes like clouds floating by in the sky or the stars at night. I've always loved that sort of stuff. I also love the changing of the seasons.

I live in an area where I got a LOT of scenery. More than I could ever ask for. Of course, I wouldn't say no to having waterfalls or mountains but we've got pretty much everything else. What I love is being able to walk around downtown Chicago. Like someone else said, it's an unappreciated art form, the city that is. I like the experience of talking with some of the homeless people there - a lot of them have some pretty interesting things to say, and no, it's not just "change change change." The sounds of the city are also interesting. It's almost more serene than out in the country where I live, but idk, maybe I'm more effective at filtering out the noise and bringing all the sounds together than someone who constantly has to live with those annoyances.

On really nice days I always walk about 25 minutes away from my house into an old field that my grandpa owns and just lie down in the grass and look at the sky. Its the most relaxing activity I can ever do. I don't' just shut aside stress when I do that, my stress just literally melts away. It's so liberating.

I've got a forest out back to go walking in any time I want, with a little swampy area with lots of fun little islands created by the tree roots that are fun to hop back and forth between, just to see how far out I can get.

But the most relaxing and enjoyable activity for me, ever, is to sit out on my front porch with thunder and lightning rumbling in the distance (at night), and the rain in a steady downpour, wind blowing a bit to bring a fine mist in. It's just as cool when the storm is right over me, but not relaxing, ya know? Pretty much the only time I'm ever in a genuinely good mood is when the weather is bad outside.

Shoes. Imagine your feet without them.

and I don't know...teh INTARNET?