kentonwhitman.com

The other day Rebecca and I drove by what looked like a small mound of feathers on the side of the road. We did a quick u-turn, and a moment later we pulled up in front of a rare sight.

“It’s an owl,” Rebecca breathed.

Indeed it was. A little screech-owl, just over six inches tall, sitting dazed on the side of the road.

We abandoned the car and approached slowly to see how badly it was injured, but it was only stunned, for as we approached, it lifted off and flew across the road to perch on a railing. We followed, amazed, and again it flew off, this time landing in a nearby tree.

I share this little story because it would have been easy to pass that little mound of feathers by. After all, we had a place to be and a time to be there.

If we had passed it by, maybe it would have been fine. But perhaps our stopping saved it from being hit by the next car that came along. In any case, we were rewarded with a magical sight, for we’d never been that close to a wild screech owl before.

Passing things by is a sort of disease that gets stronger and stronger in us as we grow up. As our life becomes dictated by schedules, and eventually by a continual feeling that ‘time shouldn’t be wasted’, we can start to move through life like it’s a board (bored) game – moving only from one designated place or task to the next, and forgetting that there is lot of travelling that goes on between the spaces.

Rebecca and I have made a point of remembering to look around us as we move through life, and to stop when something looks curious or interesting, even if it means we’ll be late for something. The result is that our life is pretty full of adventure. In an average week, we might return one lost dog to its home, rescue an injured animal from the side of the road, discover two new insects that we’ve never seen before, see a bear or a fox, find a piece of jewelry on the sidewalk, and witness the most spectacular sunset we’ve ever seen. Then repeat all that for the next week.

Incredible things are happening around us all the time. When we’re very young, we have an eye for these things, and life is quite mysterious and enchanting. But as we get older and start wearing blinders, only looking straight ahead and trying to get there as fast as we can (there’s just a grave at the end, so what’s our big hurry?), we start to miss out on about 99% of what goes on around us. It’s no wonder most adults are pretty bored.

Often, when we get very old, we slow down enough to start seeing things again. That’s why the most interesting people tend to be children and senior citizens. The people in the middle are often so myopic in their focus that they miss out on even very obvious wonders.

This whole process of ‘putting on the blinders’ starts early, and is aided by all the things in our life which demand a narrow focus, such as television, school, work, and relationships. These things are not bad in themselves, but when we let them lull us into a habit of continual focus, they become perfect training-tools to help us make life as boring as possible. By the time we’re thirty, many of us are convinced that life is nothing but a tedious routine, punctuated by occasional bouts of ‘fun’ when we drink too much or go on vacation.

There’s hope, though. Each of us can make a personal commitment to awareness, and be adventurous enough that we stop to take a look at things that call out to our sense of curiosity. We can also begin to take notice of when we are ‘swept away’ in our thoughts and our routine. When we’re rushing, it can sometimes help to stop and ask ‘what am I rushing towards?’

What is it that we are supporting when we spend our energy in stressful rushing? Is the thing we’re supporting worth the stress? Or does the thing we’re supporting only promise us more stress in the future?

Often we wait our whole lives to ask these questions. Sometimes it’s not until we’re quite old. But we can start at any age, and the younger we are when we make a commitment to awareness, the more life we’ll actually get to Live (instead of just rush through).

You probably passed by four or five awesome adventures today. Adventures exciting enough to write a book about. They might have been interesting people, or a beautiful painting, or the shooting stars you missed because you didn’t look up at the night sky when you were walking toward your front door.

Life is simply amazing. The more awareness we bring to it, the more amazing it becomes. At its greatest, awareness allows us to see the wonder even in the simple act of just sitting and breathing.

Immersed in the awesome beauty of life, we can never be bored.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 26th, 2007 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Nature, Being Present. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be queued for moderation and posted as quickly as possible.