I have a friend whom I deeply admire for her ability to create newness around her all the time. Whenever I go to her house, it looks different, fresh and exciting. Either the arrangement has been turned around, or a piece of furniture or decorative item has been added on or the way the curtains are hung has been changed. Her tiny house always looks refreshing and charming because it has never settled into stagnancy. She continuously responds to the winds of change. She is always learning innovative things (flamenco dancing is her latest project), making new friends, finding novel causes to espouse, without giving up any of the old passions. She is a great blend of constancy and novelty. Her secret, I believe, is her innate capability to seize and embrace new possibilities.

Grasp the unknown
Life is full of possibilities. If we learn to judiciously see and use them, our lives will be greatly enriched. Think about it this way. There are different ways of brewing tea or making toast. There are innumerable things to do in a day. There are countless things we can learn like bonsai cultivation, speaking Japanese, ice sculpture, gourmet cooking, crochet, organising a charity event and so on. There are so many friends to be made in the course of a day. Ever really got to know your watchman, liftman, vegetable vendor or grocer?

There are so many alternative lives that we can lead. If we keep ourselves alive to the possibilities of the moment, we will bring so much freshness and joy to our lives, that boredom, ennui and depression will flee. Indeed, it is this ability that distinguishes the artist and sage from the rest of us. The artist, the truly great one, never sees with a jaded eye. Whatever she sees, be it a flower, a stone, a cloud formation or a tree, she sees as if for the first time. That is how inspiration springs freshly into her work. And so it is for all of us!

I remember hearing this from M.F. Husain many years ago and I realised that no matter how eccentric this gentleman may be in his execution of art, it is probably this approach that has made him merit the title of being a great artist. Sages and realised people too are remarkable for their ability to be in the moment, and to be constantly creating new projects and plans. Spiritual gurus, for instance, are constantly meeting people for about 20 hours of the day/night, and yet each new person they meet gets the benefit of their wisdom.

Appreciate the miracle
So, how can we embrace each moment and see what it has to offer us?
First, we must learn to recognise and appreciate the miracle in the seemingly mundane. Waking up to a new day is not a blah thing at all, but a great gift we must receive. When we learn to value and appreciate life, then we will automatically invest more of ourselves into each moment.
Sarah Ban Brathnach, whose books, Simple Abundance and Embracing the Ordinary, are fabulous testaments to the power of possibilities, discovered her infectious love affair with life when a portion of the ceiling of a restaurant fell on her head one day. Because of some damage to the brain, for many months, her senses were in disorder. She could not bear any stimulus - any noise would have her screaming, loud patterns would jump at her and even the feel of soft cloth on her skin was too much to bear. But this ordeal taught her to value life and when she emerged from it, she developed a powerful appreciation of the most ordinary things, like the smell of hot soup or the sight of fresh flowers.
We don't need to have the ceiling fall on our heads to learn this wonderful lesson. We only need to cultivate our awareness and become conscious of how marvellous it really is to feel the softness of our child's skin against our face, or to breathe great whiffs of sea air, or to have a really swift walk.

Seek the opportunity
The second is to recognise that life is about growth. That's the reason we have taken birth. There is no other reason at all. Once we know this, we will find that all of life is a vast teaching and that every moment offers us an opportunity to grow. Then life really becomes a game as we look for and find the opportunity hidden within the extremely boring moment. For instance, you don't have to scream your lungs out with frustration when you are caught in a traffic jam. You can use that time to catch up with your friends or to listen to some music that soothes your senses, to meditate or say affirmations. You can plan your day or simply go into a pleasurable daydream. You could even use it by starting the book you've always wanted to write. When Gandhiji was in prison during the freedom struggle he used the opportunity to write books, as did Jawaharlal Nehru. The possibilities are so endless you will actually bless the traffic jam.
This is true of every boring chore like cooking, washing dishes or drying out clothes. If you choose to enjoy the routine and endeavour to bring variations into it, you will actually find many opportunities enfolded within it. For instance, you might find that you are inventing so many new stories in the process of feeding your toddler that you might just want to put them all together in the form of a book. Or while washing dishes, the sight of the bubbles might just trigger off a great artwork or an idea for a photo exhibition. Possibilities lurk everywhere - all we have to do is to open up our minds to them.