Beauty is all around us if we shut out the noise and open our eyes to see.

For example, parcs here in Montreal are full of joyous summer celebrants. Young mothers push prams and fathers walk hand in hand with their toddlers. Children romp, play ball, chase one another, and ride those tiny little pedalless bicycles. I love to sit amongst all this gaiety reading my book, taking it all in, and now and then falling into conversation with a fellow parc enthusiast. 

  Yesterday I sat on the terrace of a cafe while a World Cup Football match played on a screen mounted on an outside wall. The sun shone down and beneath the shade of a giant tree a large diverse crowd cheered on one team or the other. All colors of the human spectrum laughed, groaned, cheered and interacted, drawn together by the game. I think Portugal was playing the Congo. It was beautiful to see and I sat facing the watching crowd rather than the match playing over the television. 

  Then late in the afternoon I went to a local repertory cinema to take in a film recommended to me just the day before. Shot here in Montreal, Kaïros told the story of a struggling actor who lands a minor gig as a radio host on an unlistened-to dead of night three am to six am slot and figures he’ll devote it to a call-in philosophical talk show. 

  “Good luck with that,” as I like to say in response to what I deem crazy, misguided, or just plain wrong-headed choices in Life. 

  Well, predictably, no one calls in… at first. Then the trickle starts, lonely, lost night owls, insomniacs who gradually air their unease with the world and where they are in it, an elderly Italian immigrant woman reflecting on a move she never wanted nor accepted. 

  I loved the film. And laughed outside the cinema beneath the sinking day’s sun. 

  Welcome to the Omphalos Kaïros….

Where do you go to find beauty and recharge your faith in Life? Let’s have fun with it at omphaloscafe@gmail.com.