Awareness...

I wrote this a little over a year ago... but it's still oh so true...

"On Saturday I attended Caroline’s 5 week meditation course. After we finished she asked us to try and be more “aware” this week. Aware of our surroundings and what we are doing. Of course I left with the best intentions to try and work on my awareness, but yet again the week’s rush got the better of me and I’ve been walking around “blind-folded” trying to get things done.

This morning however I woke up with the same happiness I felt every morning since returning from the workshop. I got ready for work, put my CD in my CD player and jetted off deciding to pay more attention to my surroundings on my way to work. I started looking at the grey’ish sky (my favourite kind of weather by the way), the birds flying above, the dog trying to cross the road (don’t worry he made it) and the new rose garden on the corner of the street (well for me it was new – it’s probably been there for a while now). All so beautiful…

Suddenly my eye caught an elderly black woman walking up the hill. The bag she was carrying looked far too heavy for her slender build. She looked tired, as though she hadn’t slept enough the previous night and she had a world of worries on her shoulders. Immediately I thought – it rained last night. Maybe her house couldn’t sustain all the rain – maybe that’s why she’s so tired today. My heart went out to her. She was obviously on her way to cleaning somebody’s house. I wondered if her employer would also ask these questions. Whether there would be any empathy where she was heading. Was anybody else wondering what her story was and wishing they could help? But most importantly – did she still know there was a powerful woman inside her or was that long thought long gone?

She remained in my thoughts on the rest of my journey. I started to notice more and more people. Some were trying to beat the traffic and were changing lanes like crazy, jabbering all kinds of hysteria on their cell phones. Some were driving like they had their whole life to get to their end destination. Was it because they knew they had done what they had to do the previous day or were they afraid to face something at work? While seeing each face I had the same question – what is his/her story?

We are so busy in our lives that we forget stop to look around – to become aware… We are also too busy to realise that everybody has a story and therefore acts accordingly. So if you see a friend, colleague, family member or even stranger again, try and look a bit deeper. What is his/her story? Are they also tired? Does the load their carrying also seem to heavy to bare?"