Skywatching

Okay, you have to take this awareness test, it's only a minute of your life you won't get back...









Okay - how'd you do?



Pretty cool, huh? You got 13, right? Did you see it?



Yeah, me neither.



Today I was driving down Conewango Avenue and I was thinking about...well, you know...stuff. Nothing important, but I was on autopilot. The thing is, in the other lane was a school bus with the red lights flashing - and I was completely oblivious to it. I jammed on the brakes in time to stop (without squealing, thank you very much...) but only JUST in time to stop.



Awareness...



I can go through a whole day in a kind of a self-absorbed fog - missing so much that happens around me - at work, in town, with the kids. I can miss really important things, too - 'cause I'm just too much in a "me" moment.



I'm looking down too much lately. I used to walk looking at the sky - seeing the clouds, the tops of buildings, birds, planes. I'd stop for a rainbow, a helicopter - heck, I'd stop to watch the wind shake the leaves of the trees.



But I'm a sidewalk watcher now, way too often. Wrapped up in my thoughts, my worries, my hopes and fears.



That's not really living, is it? When I reduce my world to what's inside my head, I've shut everybody else out.



Oh, I still have days of skywatching - but not enough. But the sun is out today, and I swear I'm leaving the office in a few minutes and I'm going to watch the clouds blow by - and smell the air - and listen to the sounds of my neighborhood - kids and lawnmowers and cars going by and not miss a thing.