50 days of observations, insights, and contemplations...
by Tyler Volk
Tyler Volk’s “Mind Watching” Series Table of Contents
Day 50 Cookout
Took the train from Manhattan to brother’s place near the New Jersey coast. He and our sister, who also lives in the area, and his new puppy, hiked around Shark River Park. Later, back at his home, my mother and father, who live a half hour south of Tom, and my brother-in-law and brother’s girlfriend, all joined us for a cookout. The patter of conversation and dance of a communal meal flowed easily. People became streams that were braided into the larger stream of a social gathering. I was quickly warming back into life as a social being. There was a sense of a new life for me, familiar, to be sure, but new at the same time.
That evening, preparing for sleep, breathing and being in the present, a thought popped out, automatically: Life is an experiment. It will have whirlpools, flows, tangles, and the possibility for creating the self in new ways, as both experimenter and experiment. In the longer run, looking back from a year or so in the future, I became more gentle with others, more attentive and caring about the delicate streams of being all around me, as I sensed the universal longing to knit together the various and complicated strands of life that should ultimately head toward calmness and contentment while vibrantly carrying on amidst the endless questions about who we are.
© 2025 by Tyler Volk
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