“When someone seeks, it can easily happen that his eyes only see the thing he is seeking and that he is incapable of finding anything, incapable of taking anything in, because he is always only thinking about what he is seeking, because he has an object, a goal, because he is possessed by this goal. Seeking means having a goal, but finding means being free, open, having no goal. Perhaps you, venerable one, are indeed a seeker, for in striving after your goal, there is much you fail to see that is right before your eyes.”

– except from Siddharta, by Hermann Hesse

I finished reading the classic novel Siddhartha recently and this was one of the passages in the book that really resonated with me. After I read this passage, I literally stopped, put the book, and started to reflect on this passage. I think that in many aspects of my life, I’m more of a seeker and not a finder. Yet when I think back to some of the most interesting memories I’ve had, the majority of them came from finding.

Maybe there’s a balance that needs to be struck between seeking and finding, or maybe certain things require more seeking rather than finding, or more finding rather than seeking, but whatever the case, I don’t want to miss what’s out there “right before your eyes.”