Someone who took the time to talk to me today said that life is short, and the future an uncertainty, and it's important to take the time to engage each other when the opportunity arises,it's important to see each other in that moment. How many people did I rush by today? How many faces went unseen? How many conversations didn't happen, because I was late, because I had an agenda, because time waits for no man. What I do to make a living is important to me, and it's important to those people that I work with who depend on me, and all the people that make up the company that I work for to show up, to execute their work with excellence, to contribute to the support of families and all of the lives that are touched by what we do. It is because of the opportunity to connect with these people, to have these conversations, that I get out of bed each morning and spend 8 hours a day doing what I do. These people are important to me - all of them. I sometimes find myself, in the moment, wondering if collectively we are really aware of each other - aware of how important we all are to each other. For all of the dehumanizing things we do to each other to simplify processes, or to distance ourselves from our emotions in order to make logical decisions, in the end it is about people. When I look at engineers packed into cubicles, or Customer Service associates with the phone glued to their ear, I see a myriad of connections, to children sitting at desks in schools, to spouses, to life styles, to hopes, to dreams...I see communities and businesses, churches and social organizations. I see a complex and intricate web or relationships and dependencies, and it is all so frail. As robust as it is, it can all end in a moment.
Lately I have been spending a lot of time thinking about Japan and the devastation that has taken place there. In a relatively short period of time, due to an unforeseen natural disaster, the lives of countless people have changed. What they had is just like what I have. Their lives were part of an intricate fabric of relationships just like mine. For myself, this event has lent a real imperative for me to appreciate what I have in this moment, and in each and every moment. For me this event has shaken my sense of permanence to it's core.
In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths I take, but how many moments take my breath away. I wish to be breathless with awe for whatever time I have left, reveling in each moment, and at each person that graces my life, in amazement and joy.
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