The Phenomenon of the Mundane

Against my better judgement I'm feeling kind of sentimental writing this post. Discussing the wonders of places to read with Yomiko brought to light the startling clarity of how wonderful the most simple things can be. That despite my love of the finer things in this world, the adventures in far off countries, that sometimes the things that make me happiest are seemingly insignificant in comparison.
A couple of years ago I spent some time with Jack. We've known each other for quite a while now and he's one of the few people in this world who sees me for who I truly am. It's amazing how many times with him I can remember with such clarity. This particular time, though, it's blazoned in my memory. Not that there was anything special about it. It was just perfect.
I spent 4 days at Jack's home, the first time I'd visited him. We ate too much, drank too much, did all sorts of things that weren't consequential. We decided to have a traditional Sunday roast, walk through a couple of mazes, bought lollies and drove up a mountain all because we could. None of these were particularly fantastic or exciting but the whole expedition had this whimsical nature that I've longed for since.
Since then my relationship with Jack has changed. We're still close but it's not the same.
I spent a long time angry at him for that. That it was him who made it so that our meetings now have a feeling of the mundane about them, the whimsical nature long since past. That it was him who stopped confiding in me. That it was him who blamed me for leaving.
What I've realised though and it's been a long road to this realisation, is that I've made my own decisions in this. I did leave, and by choice, I was offered something I wanted more than I wanted to stay. I wonder sometimes if that was the final nail in it all. That I made a decision thinking that everything would stay the same, being angry because it didn't. More than that though, that maybe in all our conversations with one another we never we said what we were thinking.
So there's the difference, nothing much has changed between the two of us, yet at the same time everything has. What once was whimsical is now simply mundane.
This is also everything I'll never tell Jack, that if I was the one who changed it, then I'm more sorry than he'll ever know.

Even the most mundane things
can have an ethereal nature to them