Gumi macko, my love, Tri-omino, mon amour

It has happened to you that you wake up in the morning not quite knowing why. It has happened to me to eat aromatic hazelnuts or freshly grilled asparagus without appreciating fully. It happens to Budapest tram passengers to cross Margit Bridge without lifting their heads while passing by one of the most beautiful urban landscapes in the world.

Has it happened to you to cross the garden in a beautiful morning hurrying home to finish an important report not noticing how the popcorn-like tree transformed into green leafy tree? You have presumably sometimes stop contemplating a sunset hurrying home for the evening news.

The answer how not to do that and how to enjoy the present moment and small things lies with kids. That's not a revelation, of course, but come on - let us learn it once and forever!

This morning I was struck again by my sons' joy when they were administered their daily dose of multi-vitamins in the form of rubber teddy bears. They were beaming with happiness. One would say what's the big deal...but they would say 'Gumi mackooooooooo, hurray!'

A handful of gumi macko (rubber teddy bears) vitamins

And look here: this is Boris' new passion. It is called Tri-omino and it is a game that resembles domino but with triangles. We discovered this game at New Year through my friend Richard who is the ultimate game guru. Boris is the absolute world tri-omino champion and I have never seen someone being so happy hearing the words 'Yes, of course, we will play until 400......' or someone so excited when making a bridge or a diamond (tri-omino figures).

Tri-omino, Boris' passion

And some words about passion in doing small things like.....eating ice-cream. Here is Andrej and that's how he looks like when he is left alone with a box of chocolate ice-cream. I promise to write a report on Monday with a similar attitude and I wonder what would come out of it.

Andrej after eating chocolate ice-cream

I am kidding a bit with this post but I am also serious. I would like to learn these simple joys and appreciate them fully. Dozens of daily interactions and apparantly banal things and motions are full with inherent beauty which is kind of veiled because of our way of life, because of rushing or because of wrong focus. I would personally like to lift the veil.

I would also like not to be scared by the repetitiveness of things as we all know that this is what often kills the freshness of perception. Exactly because we know it is possible to be tired by repetition I would like to look for fresh ways to look at repetitive phenomena.

I think another reason for lack of appreciation is a certain arrogance that we can have towards possibly simple phenomena assuming that dealing with presumably more complex phenomena makes us more intelligent than we actually are.

There is a poem by my father which is fully in line with what I want to say.

If you transform
Emil Zhechkov

If you transform your soul
into an exquisite bell
How beautiful - drumming of little rain drops hammers
on its bronze neck.

Kid's fingers touch and wake
the sleepy tendersness -
invisible sounds will blossom from
the magic box of the morning.

If you turn your soul into a green tree
it will be a smelly bed for jumping birds
dreaming of infinity
and tireless wings....

It seems to me that we are debtors to many things around us....