How do you view your world?
Do you pay any attention to the extras in the movie of your life, or are you fixated on the main characters? In my day-to-day, I try to notice other people - even if I only acknowledge they're there. I will hold the door open for a stranger, offer someone my seat, help someone with their bags or let them out of a junction onto a busy road.
In return, I will get a smile, a thank you, a wave - and I have made a tiny connection with another human being that has a bit-part in my personal production.
It's all too easy to become so wrapped up in our own world that we forget everyone else out there is also going through the same day as us with their own burdens, fears, ills and worries - or, if they're lucky, their joys, good luck, celebrations and freedoms.
We share this world with 7 billion other people, all going about their business much the same as us. Growing, learning, grieving, fighting, cheering, loving, eating, sleeping, nurturing, cursing, struggling, living, dying. They are happy, sad, desperate, elated, afraid, confident, amazed, persecuted, ignored, cultured, ignorant, arrogant, humble, loved, despised, feared, cherished.
I try to notice the people in my constantly shifting frame of vision. I try to notice the sky, the fields as I drive to work, the other motorists, (I see people in their cars as they pass me, staring fixedly ahead on their way to their jobs, meetings or liaisons - and they're oblivious of my presence.)
Mad as it might seem - I say good morning to the magpies that always seem to be on the grass outside my home. I smile at people as they walk their dogs, and say hello to the dogs as well. I pick up litter in my street or off my neighbour's lawn.
I try to take some time to care about others, and I do so without thought of any reward. Being me is reward enough - and every day I give thanks to whatever I perceive God to be, for letting me have another day on this beautiful, wonderful, awesome world of ours.
In return, I will get a smile, a thank you, a wave - and I have made a tiny connection with another human being that has a bit-part in my personal production.
It's all too easy to become so wrapped up in our own world that we forget everyone else out there is also going through the same day as us with their own burdens, fears, ills and worries - or, if they're lucky, their joys, good luck, celebrations and freedoms.
We share this world with 7 billion other people, all going about their business much the same as us. Growing, learning, grieving, fighting, cheering, loving, eating, sleeping, nurturing, cursing, struggling, living, dying. They are happy, sad, desperate, elated, afraid, confident, amazed, persecuted, ignored, cultured, ignorant, arrogant, humble, loved, despised, feared, cherished.
I try to notice the people in my constantly shifting frame of vision. I try to notice the sky, the fields as I drive to work, the other motorists, (I see people in their cars as they pass me, staring fixedly ahead on their way to their jobs, meetings or liaisons - and they're oblivious of my presence.)
Mad as it might seem - I say good morning to the magpies that always seem to be on the grass outside my home. I smile at people as they walk their dogs, and say hello to the dogs as well. I pick up litter in my street or off my neighbour's lawn.
I try to take some time to care about others, and I do so without thought of any reward. Being me is reward enough - and every day I give thanks to whatever I perceive God to be, for letting me have another day on this beautiful, wonderful, awesome world of ours.
