Wednesday 17 July 2019

Alive, Awake and Curious

Sometimes we drift through life and not notice how we got there.

We put our driving on auto-pilot and arrive at the shops, when we wanted to visit a friend, and we wonder,
How did we get here?
Or we find ourselves in a heated argument, not knowing where it came from. We find ourselves more upset about being caught off guard than actually the specific thing that triggered the argument.
How did we get here?
Or we find our head cracked open on the foot path, blood spilling out on the concrete, not sure whether we will remain conscious or not, we wonder,
How did we get here?
What makes us not notice our usual route would not take us to our new destination?
What makes us not notice the strain in their loved one's voice, or the inconsistency between our actions and plans?
What made me not notice the compound effect of these deviations from the norm

  • not wearing my helmet - having decided not to scooter 
  • tired from a busy week of work - I'm more uncoordinated than usual
  • emotionally charged - frustrated that my kids disobeyed my instructions
  • oversized person riding on a kids' scooter - later changing my mind, to scooter
  • carrying a large backpack - instability like towing a trailer
How refreshing it is to have hindsight. But we can miss the learning opportunity here too.

We might be awake but we are asleep.
We might be alive but we feel kinda dead inside.

A close call with death can jolt us to be curious again, and notice things we've not noticed before.

How do you stay awake?



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