Each week during these wild three months in Vietnam I found a new food worth obsessing over. I would absolutely gorge myself with it until it lost all appeal.
However, one obsession remained constant: coconuts. Despite the fact that I drank two coconuts nearly every day my love for them never faded.
And isn’t that important? Finding at least one stable and simple thing in this world that you can count on as a source of happiness. Luckily for me it’s something as healthy as coconuts. Unluckily for me Ohio isn’t a great importer of coconuts.
Before entering my apartment after a tough day of work, I’d hop into the cafe next door and buy a coconut because as the saying goes nothing takes the edge off a crappy day like a fresh coconut. This was such a routine of mine that I even became quite close friends with the cafe owner.
Regardless of where you are in the world and what you're doing, some days will inevitably feel exhausting. It’s easy to get caught up in the rush of life and forget the importance of finding joy in everyday things.
I find myself overlooking the little details that make my life special. I mistakenly assume that the massive moments like graduating, moving abroad, starting a new job, make my life special. I realize now, though, that despite the importance of those big moments, they don't make up the meat of my life.
Now I’m working on savoring life's smaller moments. Those moments - like drinking a coconut either in sweet solitude or chatting with the cafe owner - deserve more appreciation.
I no longer want to look back on my life and think, "Wow. That was a really special moment with my friends or family." Instead I want to acknowledge and embrace the moment while I'm living it. I know that sounds idealistic, but I'd rather be an idealist than look back years later wishing I appreciated some little moments just little more.
This post might sound as though I have a dependence on coconuts, which is embarrassing, but I also wouldn’t deny it. After all, my friends joke that I need to collect coconuts like others collect wine bottles or that I better leave some clothes behind in order to bring a proper amount of coconuts home with me.
Sure, perhaps it is odd or humorous that I find coconuts so soothing and enjoyable.
However, consider for a moment the beauty in that.
Somewhere along the way, humans (especially us Americans) decided we needed more. More money, more cars, more clothes, more vacations, more, more, more. Materialism comes as naturally to us as breathing.
.
As a girl who fully embraced the motto “treat yo’ self!” whenever I debated buying virtually anything, I’m just as guilty. Back home, after a crappy week I’d hit the mall and call it retail therapy.
While in Vietnam, however, I barely spent any money on myself. Trust me, there were plenty of tough days in which past-Morgan would have hurt her credit card in the great search for more, more, more in order to feel better.
Instead all I needed on those long days was a 75 cent coconut.
I could sit at the cafe, talk to the owner and relax. Let the day go and enjoy one of my life's little moments before it becomes just another memory.
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