Today is a public holiday in Taiwan, and quite a few places are closed… which means that my normal café was not open today. I had to figure out something else. So, I am trying a new place called 000 Café.
I first saw the outside seating: brightly coloured little pots with flowers placed evenly across a wooden bench with brightly coloured stools. The name of the café hangs on a wall to the side, and is lit up in neon blue, yellow and purple with the tag line: define your own dot.
It’s sunny enough to sit outside today, but I need to plug in my laptop, so I choose to sit at a window decorated with a dragon drawing. The morning sun filters through, causing the shadow of a happy little dragon to appear on the bench on which I am working.
Outside, I can see the vibrant green leaves of little bushes planted in big terracotta pots that are lined against the building wall. There are lots of butterflies these days in Taipei, as winter begins to fade, and spring arrives. I can see that many people have taken advantage of the warmer weather too, as lots of bicycles slowly ride past.
My drink arrives… rose milk tea. It comes in a tall glass. Deep pink fading into white, and a few little rose petals are scattered over the foam on top. I take a sip and it tastes heavenly… perfect to soothe the little headache I have this morning.
I look around and see the tagline again… define your own dot. It gets me thinking… so often, especially concerning social media, we can feel like a little drop of water in the big ocean. A little grain of sand in a massive desert. A little speck out there in the big wide world. While I sit and write or walk the streets taking photos… it sometimes does cross my mind: maybe what I have to share is not important.
These days, this thought only comes to my mind for a brief moment. Over time, I have realised that this question is completely irrelevant. The importance of what you have to say doesn’t matter, because importance is subjective. And even though I can travel and see what life may be like for others, I can never really know what others think.
Besides, importance is heavy, serious and not much fun. I had been chasing “important” my whole life, and it has never fulfilled me. “Important” had always been defined by someone else.
Now, I put more attention on the process of deciding what’s important to me. When we decide what is important for ourselves, then we become fully consumed in the act of creating something.
Define your own dot… if I am only as small as a dot in this world, then maybe it’s better to just have fun defining my little space than worrying about if others think it is important.
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