Life, Flowing Again

These past two years, I've been searching, trying to understand myself, and what it really is that we live for. A few days ago, I think I found the answer.

That day, my friend, Dapeng, and I took the children out together. We explored the whole way, feeding seagulls, digging along the shore, gathering a good haul of shellfish. On the road we passed a peach orchard, so we found the farmer and picked some fresh peaches. We looked at the world through our children's eyes, and in those days, in every moment, we were exploring, discovering something new.

Along the way, we met two truly lovely people.

One was a man selling little buckets and shovels on the beach, around thirty. Seeing us carrying our small bucket of shellfish, he came over to chat, and said, you're lucky today, nobody found anything yesterday, but the tide was good today, lots of shellfish, they'll taste so fresh fried up at home. We were travelers, and it would only go to waste carried back, so we gave them to him. He was grateful, and gave the children little shovels in return.

The other was a man in his fifties, sitting beside us on the high-speed train home. Watching my child and Ahui's child play cards, he couldn't help but join in himself. Chewing his gum, watching the children laugh, so full of a child's heart.

There was a time I couldn't feel any of this.

Back then, most of my hours were taken up by work, and worry. My life didn't seem to flow. It was blocked. I passed through so many places, and saw nothing at all.

But in those few days, when I set work down and let the worry loosen, I suddenly felt all of it. The sea breeze, the peach blossoms, the children's laughter, and the kindness in those two strangers. It turns out these beautiful things were always there. It was the old me, blocked up, who couldn't feel them.

So this, it turns out, is what it means to be alive. Simply to feel, fully, the natural world, the beauty in it, and the beauty between one person and another.

I thought of one more thing.

AI is here now, and many people are afraid. But I've been thinking, if the coming of AI can let us live like this, then that is what AI truly means for us.

Let the mechanical, repetitive things go to AI. And we, as people, can finally return to what only people can do. To dig along the shore, to pick peaches, to be with our children, to feel the beauty of this world, and the warmth between people. These are things AI can never give, and can never replace.

I think I will remember these few days. And I'll carry this flowing feeling with me, as I keep walking on.

Marie, Founder of Lyfairs