Are you paying attention?

What I am about to say won’t sit very well with you. In fact I have a feeling that if I had been in the same room as you, you would have possibly thrown something at me or in the process feel very offended. Yet, somehow all this time no one could muster enough courage to say this to you, but found creative ways to talk about it behind your back.

I know currently you are trying to shed weight and finding it very hard. Another is looking at the fragments left of what once was a seemingly perfect relationship and trying to make sense of what went horribly wrong. Just further down the line someone is trying to avoid calls, because of an enormous debt incurred and now the throbbing headaches are a reminder of the bad choices made at a particular moment. There is a parent wondering how and where things went wrong with a child who seemed to be on a successful path and now stand facing the abyss. I do not want you to get me wrong and think that my response to you is harsh, cold and that it is my intention to stab you even deeper. My only aim is to get you to wake up and understand that you were not paying attention.

Okay, so you didn’t hear that the first time. I said you were not paying closely attention. You see there is very little in life which happens without something that gives away the imminent storm. I know this seems almost too easy to say and from your perspective it sounds all like hogwash. The reality is that the kilos you are trying to shed did not merely find its way there overnight. It came as a result of… as a result of you not paying attention.

Right now many people have just come from holiday and returned to work. And yet while they spent many hours in the sun and blew hundreds, even thousands of rand, they are already planning the next holiday; thinking of moments of sheer pleasure. Yet, after all is said and done very few of those individuals consider planning for their retirement or saving for an unexpected eventuality. You see what I mean? They are not paying attention. The reality is that there is this path that seems right unto human kind. The end thereof unfortunately is the consequence of ill choices and a lifetime of not paying closely attention.

There are those who live surrounded by beauty, are blessed beyond measure and yet they have never summited Table Mountain or even visited the southern tip of Africa. Yet, there are moments when it begs them to venture much further than their concrete jungle and every time the sun caresses their skin it is a call to come out to play. Yet, one day the yearning to experience that which has been so freely given will be too far to reach, because somehow when it mattered most, they were not paying attention.

Pay attention. Don’t allow life to pass you by and you are too busy to appreciate God’s finest gifts to you each day. The objective is not to ensure that you are not distracted. The imperative of life is to ensure that you are paying attention.