Jonah

“But..”
“No buts, Jonah” said he, leaning towards the young boy,
“You know exactly what I mean.”
As he leaned back in his chair again he raised his pen to his lips, perhaps to quieten the boy, or to gather his thoughts before he started again,
“You can find inspiration from anywhere. You’re not depressed, Jonah, you’re just bored. Anyone can tell you that. You just need to find inspiration to live on, to live your life, as they say. Look outside for instance…”
He swivelled his chair towards the window, and both peered through the misted glass into the outside world. The view was covered in thick, white snow, snowflakes were dusted over the branches of the tree at the back, ice filled the bird bath, and the journey of a man and his dog were printed on the ground.
“It looks beautiful, doesn’t it? Everyone has a different definition of beauty, but you cannot deny the credibility of nature. You haven’t noticed just how amazing the world is around you because you simply don’t want to. When you convince yourself of unhappiness, you miss important things. Like your mother’s smile, or the sweet taste of chocolate. These things don’t seem important to people, we just forget. Our minds are filled with the thoughts of wealth, we thrive on our materialistic needs. If you forget the simple things, you simply forget life. That’s what’s happened to you, Jonah, material needs have vacated your mind. You need to get out of that, listen to your father laugh, or just dance to music, and you might just understand.”
He watched as the boy sighed deeply and wiped his brow, he could tell that the boy was having trouble taking it in,
“But sir, isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder? Maybe my father’s laugh or the taste of chocolate isn’t what I view as beautiful? What about then? I hear my father laugh every day, my mother smiles every day, but every time they do, I don’t instantly gain happiness. It’s just normal. Normal things surely can’t make me happy?”
He smiled to himself; these were the questions he had expected from the boy. He was finally getting somewhere,
“You do hear, feel and taste every day. But do you really listen? Do you really feel things? Do you really taste? Jonah, these things are normal, but I’m asking you to concentrate on these things. Tell me, is your father’s laugh a low bellowing sound? Or does the tone change? Can you honestly tell me that you've really listened to him? Have you listened so hard that you can even hear where he takes a breath? No, no one can. No one concentrates on these things, because they’re not important to them. They need to be. If we want to live life, we need to really notice the little things.”