Awareness

I realized some time ago, that we have become a people of convenience; speaking to automatons on the telephone when we want information, (ex. "please press one if you'd like to hear this message in English", "Press two for Customer Service", "Please say yes, or press two if you'd like to make a payment"), communicating online, making purchases on line, viewing the weather on our phones, some even find love never having left their home.  We drive to work, we make pit stops on the way home, we are fitting 50 things into our days, only to be left like a wet towel on the floor when hit home, exhausted with little clue as to what all transpired in eight hours.

It's no wonder to me that we choose to go about our business in the most efficient manner without connecting face to face; most of the people I encounter out and about are rude, unfriendly, unhelpful and without the rudimentary knowledge to help me when I've got a question.  Case in point, when I went to see a movie the last time, I asked for butter on my popcorn (I know, I know......) and the young woman behind the counter looked at me like she was doing me some huge favor, never stopping her conversation with her coworker while she buttered the outside of the popcorn container and I was now fully informed about how 'Ryan kept texting her last night, and she knew it was just a booty call'. 

It's everywhere, the grocery store, the information or manager's counter in most every store, the people that you finally get to speak to on the phone after pushing buttons on the thing for 30 minutes.  When did we become the people with no social skills?  What happened to saying "Hello" and offering a smile to a stranger or passerby?  When did we all agree that it's alright to go to work and showing up was enough to earn your day's pay? 

I'm thinking that we haven't become more efficient, just lazy.  When I think of all the tasks I complete on the computer at work, all the while thinking I'm saving paper and that is a good thing, I'm printing out copies of this work to share with others.  Doesn't seem like I saved paper at all!  Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek for the computer, love my gadgets and gizmos, feel lost without my cell phone, but I have to say, I still get warm and fuzzy when a smile is returned, or I've shared an anonymous chuckle over something silly at the store with a stranger.  So I ponder how we retain our 'presence' through our automated world, so we don't become a mere pixel in the monitor of our earth.

When we recently traveled to the Keys, I had some time to just 'be'.  A time where it was just quiet, no conversation, no radio, TV, facebook......I was surprised to find out how loud life can be when we tune in.  I sat there, listeing to the breeze, the sound the water makes when a fish jumps up, the fluttering of a gull's wings and their hysterical laughter.  I found myself smiling up at the bird as if we were bound by some earthly joke, the heavens our screen and joy is all around us if we just become quiet enough within ourselves to 'hear' it all. 

I've since adopted a practice that I strive for daily.  Awareness.  It is the place you take yourself when you can finally calm down enough from your day, where you focus on just breathing (because that's what keeps us alive!), and clear your head for just a few moments.....away from the feeling that you absolutely have to redeem your farmville gifts, make a phone call, clean the bathroom, or any other self ordained obligations that all will wait.....while you just live for a few moments.  It's really hard to push all thought from your mind, although it's just all that thinking that has taken you to a headache, stress, and wound up tighter than a yo-yo place that feel like crap.  When you start to become 'Aware', you quickly realize what things will wait, what your priorities are, what is worth stressing over and what is not.  We put too much emphasis on things that make so little difference in who we are and what our purpose is.

Now, I will admit that I am a silly, fun-loving, aging hippy, but my tendencies are to have the most serious of thoughts.  I often felt that I needed that goofy piece to temper my thinking or I might as well just lock myself up in the closet.  But that exercise in itself can be exhausting.  At the age of 53, I have come to realize that there is so much life out there and I want the pieces of it that are mine.  Every day of it is a gift.  All of it shapes and molds us.  Yes, even the bullshit has it's purpose.  So, my first blog seems to have become philisophical.  I am  hoping that someone can identify with these feelings,  that you can find a place to be 'aware', and that reading this will save you some years of accumulated stress.......I've already done that for you!