I don’t think I’m a spontaneous person.

My roadtrips have itineraries. My days have plans. My workouts fit into weekly schedule. When my plans are interrupted, I become irritated.

Spontaneity implies a lack of control; a willingness to walk out on the street naked and take whatever the world has to offer. There is a part of me that craves certainty and will cry out if denied it. Thus, spontaneity has always felt unnatural.

But spontaneity also leaves space for wonder, surprise and having your mind changed in unexpected ways.

Recently, I’ve been reading books I purchased from op-shops (I have a compulsive habit of buying second hand books because the Asian side of me can’t resist a bargain). Many of these books I hadn’t heard of before, but bought them anyway because they seemed interesting.

Reading these books have been delightful. Opening the cover and diving into someone else’s world is always a unique experience, and doing it whilst having no expectations is even better.

One book I’m enjoying right now is How Proust Can Change Your Life. It’s a biography mixed with a self-help manual and is surprisingly funny. Wisdom flows from every page of this book, ranging from topics like suffering, relationships and how to be a better reader. Not knowing what this book was about made these lessons even richer.

Spontaneity is scary and unpredictable. But it is from these voids of uncertainty where the most surprising revelations can be found.