What beauties are we passing by every day?

After an awesome day spent with a large group of friends and buisiness associates in Lincoln, New Hampshire here I am now, sitting on my bed, going through my emails waiting for my body to completely feel at easy and finally surrender itself to a nice and relaxing sleep.

It was an exceptional day, but was also a long one. We started at 4am. We snowshoed, hiked, some went on skiing and innertubing down the mountain covered with snow. We enjoyed a lovely and pleasant lunch together, then went on our marry way to do watherver we felt like doing for the afternoon.

My friend and I ended up chosing to go to a quiet and pleasant hiking, a different trail from the one we snowshoed earlier in the morning. We found out that the trail's name is Serendipity. Funny, because this is one of my favorite words in the English Language. Means 'making desirable discoveries by accident'. The trail, without a doubt, deserved the name. I was completely distracted with everything my eyes and sense where capturing on enjoying the few hours in peace with nature. The sound of the running water on the river, the sun shining hight between the tall trees and the path under my feet and ahead of me, all covered with the white and soft packed snow, helped me to bring my thoughts to a stand still and free my mind to be one with the surroundings. 

After dinner and a little happy hour with my colleagues and others I now find myself here, relaxed, filled to the brim with peace and harmony inside and out of me. While checking the inumerous emails, I found this one. It caught my attention and made me wonder of how many times we get too busy, overwhelmed by the busyness of our lives and miss all the simple and priceless beauties that surround us. It talks exactly about the thoughts I had throughout the day, and makes me aware that there are truly, signs and messages all around us, we just have to pay attention to what they are telling us.

I have decided to share it with you. I hope it will do to you what has done to me. To think and be grateful for every little thing that touches our souls every day, that regardless of our busy life, it does deserve us to get out of our ever so crowed schedule, stop and enjoy it. It does not need money nor richness, neither succes nor power,  just a few minutes out of our time to move our eyes from the rush-rush and enjoy for a little.

A man sat at a metro station... in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at  theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?See More