You know, for a long time, I just saw an apple as, well, an apple. Something to munch on, keep the doctor away, all that jazz. Never gave it a second thought beyond whether it was crisp or mealy. But life, man, it throws you curveballs, and sometimes, you find meaning in the oddest places. And for me, yeah, it was an apple.
I hit a wall a couple of years back. Just felt… empty. Like I was grinding away, day in, day out, and nothing really stuck. Everything felt like a task, a chore. My passion for stuff, even for writing these posts, it just kinda fizzled out. I’d wake up, go through the motions, eat, sleep, repeat. I was dragging, constantly. My mind was like a crowded highway with no clear exit. I tried all sorts of things, you know? Meditating, new hobbies, even tried to force myself to read inspirational books, but nothing clicked. It all felt fake, like I was trying to put a bandage on a gaping wound.
Then one afternoon, I was just sitting at my desk, feeling pretty beat. Hadn’t even eaten lunch properly, just picked at some stale crackers. My fruit bowl was sitting there, neglected, and I noticed this one apple. A simple, red Gala. Not shiny, kinda dull, actually, maybe a little bruised from sitting there too long. I just grabbed it, without thinking. Didn’t even really want to eat it, just held it in my hand. It was cool, a bit firm. I spun it around, just mindless. And then I started to peel it, slowly, with a small knife, letting the skin come off in one long spiral, like I used to do as a kid.
As I was peeling, my mind, for the first time in ages, just quieted down. No internal chatter, no to-do lists screaming in my head. Just the knife scraping, the scent of fresh apple starting to fill the air. And then I sliced it open. Right down the middle. And there it was. The core. The seeds, all perfectly arranged inside a little star. That simple, perfect star.
It hit me like a ton of bricks. That apple, just sitting there, doing its thing, had this whole universe inside it. A tiny, perfect blueprint for more life. It didn’t need to be flashy, didn’t need to shout about itself. It just was. And inside, it held all that potential, all that future.
I remember just sitting there, holding those two halves, staring at the star. And I started thinking about its journey. From a tiny seed buried in the dirt, needing care, needing sun and rain. Then growing, through storms and calm, patiently becoming a tree. Then bearing fruit, season after season. Not rushing, not complaining, just following its natural rhythm. And each apple, even a slightly bruised one like the one in my hand, held that same beginning and end, that same potential for new life.
That little moment with that apple, it really stuck with me. I started to see things differently. I saw myself, you know? Like I was also just an apple, with my own core, my own potential. Maybe I was feeling bruised on the outside, a bit neglected, but the core was still there. The seeds of whatever I wanted to grow, they were still there, waiting. I just had to remember that natural rhythm, that patience.
From that day on, I started consciously looking for the “core” in things. In my work, in my relationships, in my own feelings. What was the real, simple truth at the center of it? What was the seed I wanted to plant? I stopped trying to force things so much. I started appreciating the cycles, the quiet growth. I realized that sometimes, you just gotta let yourself be, let yourself grow at your own pace, and trust that the core, the essence, is still good and strong. It was a really humble, simple lesson, learned from a plain old apple. But it pulled me right out of that funk. It’s funny, the things that end up teaching you the most.
