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.
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.
Comments
Thanks, man. Great reflections.
I struggle with the same thing: getting so wrapped up in my inner world that I can't just take the outer world at face value and enjoy it for a while. Same thing with people...often I let my inner world dictate how I should treat them, rather than looking at them and their real needs, and then being a servant.
Thanks for the challenge, brother!
Jeff