Firstly to all the guys, my apologies this blog is not a discussion about handyman jobs around the house. Although if a piece of expensive jewellery vanished down the drain you could be summoned by a significant other to grab any tool you can get a hold of leaving no time to spare in order to save your investment. It is quite a scary thought to imagine an expensive ear ring dropping into a dark drain never to be seen again.
How about if a piece of jewellery worth only a couple of dollars dropped into the basin?
I don’t normally take my ear rings off above the bathroom basin however for whatever reason I did the other night. I took the ear ring off and there it went down the drain! My reaction was quite minor as that ear ring was a cheap one. Had it been expensive I would have been screaming OUT LOUD!
After my cheap ear ring vanished from sight an interesting thought dropped into my head as I stood there wondering why I had picked that spot to take the ear ring off in the first place.
I suppose it could have been one of those automatic pilot moments, when you go about your routine unawares that you are actually not really thinking about what you are doing.
Have you ever had one of those automatic pilot moments?
Changing the topic a little from bathrooms to kitchens, on a particular night a few years ago I had one of those automatic pilot moments with a hand held mixer. I was mixing up butter and sugar. The butter got stuck in the small sharp blades so I decided I would help them get unstuck. With one hand I held the mixer and with the other I started grabbing at the butter. What do you suppose happened? The hand that was holding the mixer suddenly decided all by itself to press the button and turn it on while my fingers from the other hand were in the blades!
OMG I freaked out thinking I had cut the tops of my fingers off, NO thank God, the blades had only hit my thumb nail. Nothing too serious, however it took me at least a good hour and a half lying on the floor to recover from the shock.
OK so back to the cheap ear ring dropping into the bathroom basin scenario.
Had this ear ring been expensive then it would have been a costly exercise that night both financially and emotionally.
So with the topic of drains and expensive items in mind, how true is it that in our everyday lives we can start living on automatic pilot mode and take people or loved ones for granted?
Money can’t buy people or relationships back yet somehow we can lose sight of the true value of people. When a relationship with someone goes down the drain we can be left standing there wondering why we had been so absent minded about taking care of the friendship, marriage, sibling’s, a mum or a dad.
Can we really blame ourselves for being absent minded considering the distractions and busyness we each have to navigate through each and every day. Sometimes we don’t even take the time to stop for ourselves let alone stop for another person. The morning alarm goes off and we are focused on getting through the day.
How easy is it to be living on automatic pilot and not take the time to notice what is really going on in the lives of those around us. We are usually ok with saying hello, but then it can ever so easily stop right there.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone and noticed that they were looking around while you were talking to them and it was as though the person was there but no one was home. Ahhh that is the most frustrating situation ever!!!
If people are more valuable than money why do we so easily neglect connecting with our families or the people in our community? Has the true meaning of relationships with others sort of dropped into the drain so to speak? That all we can muster is a quick ‘like’ on a social media site yet when we notice a person we have on our friends list we can’t even talk to them or even acknowledge them face to face.
Don’t worry, im guilty too!
It is not hard to understand why loneliness is increasing and people are doing desperate things amidst their pain.
What would happen if people decided to snap themselves out of automatic pilot zone and consider others a little bit more?
We can never be there for the whole entire world but we can be there for those in our circle. We can choose to engage in conversation with people beyond the five minutes and choose to listen to what they are saying. Not just listen but really hear what they are saying.
When I was going through some of my tough seasons I remember how I felt when I was desperate to just talk to someone and found that people were almost too scared to hear me. We shouldn’t be scared to hear what someone is saying. It wasn’t as though I was expecting an answer I was just looking for reassurance from people I thought were wiser than me, people that had possibly been through stuff. As a result of experiencing too many of those sorts of situations I stopped talking to people about anything too deep. Hence my passion to listen and reach out!
Don’t underestimate the power of stopping and listening to people. When you stop to listen you may just hear what someone is really saying. You might be the person who is at the right place at the right time for that moment with that person who desperately needs to be reassured that they will be ok.
Perhaps it’s time to go beyond listening and really start hearing.
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The Change that changes you 