 I'm Watching You... |
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Here's an up-to-date picture of me and 'my girls' taken at my brother's wedding last month...
I've been doing a lot of thinking recently. And...for the first time - I just deleted the eight paragraphs that I wrote over the last fifteen minutes. Life was calling me - telling my analytical brain to shut up as it had a story to tell. In fact - a group of little stories, played out day-in, day-out by people who didn't realize that they were being watched... Yesterday I spent a few hours waiting outside shops wheeling 9-month-old Skye around as Lesley did her usual I-can't-decide-which-one routine. I watched grandmothers, mothers, and children weave in and out of each other as they window-shopped. I watched bored workers on their lunch break sit and share their food with colleagues as they complained bitterly about their boss. I watched as the girl behind the checkout aimlessly picked her fingers as a mother with a mad toddler struggled to keep her cool and her balance as she tripped on the low-hangind clothes that she was just about to get. I watched as a nervous salesman tried to accost passers-by by thrusting an application form aimed at getting them more in debt. I watched as Lesley laughed out loud at a funny t-shirt in a new boutique and made the girl standing next to her jump. I watched as Skye began to 'dance' in her high-chair at the exact moment that a young couple with a tiny baby in tow looked over at us feeding her. I watched as fellow drivers were getting more and more stressed as we sat in traffic for an hour because of an accident, whilst Lesley and I were singing along to a song at the top of our voices, car windows down. I watched as Katie came out of school wearing her P.E. t-shirt because one of the boys in her class had been tripped - and tipped the contents of eight paint pots over her usual school shirt. I winced as her nine-year-old elbow made contact with my ribs as I laughed as she told me! I watched as the now-crawling Skye made a beeline for everything on the floor except her toys, and then proceeded to chew whatever it was almost in defiance of her mother. I watched as Lesley turned on her back in bed at 10:30pm last night...and preceded to snore so loudly that I had to put my book down and turn off the light. I watched through foggy eyes as Katie stood at the bedroom door this morning, an hour earlier than she should have, and did that little 'jig' of anger that stroppy children do when told that they should go back to bed. I watched as she animatedly collared her best friend on the way into school - to excitedly share with her that their classmate had returned from vacation today - and will find out that she is sitting next to another girl whom she hates! I watched as a boy was being dragged kicking and screaming into school, crying his eyes out saying that he didn't want to go, his mother getting more flustered, embarrassed, and angrier by the minute. I watched as miserable-faced people aimlessly went about their business as I spent the 20-minute walk back home continuing my business education thanks to my Ipod. Me... I watched as I sat down in front of this computer - stumped for what to write to you today - yet knowing that it was only a matter of time before I would be able to make a connection with you. Perhaps I didn't do it in the way that I usually do - but it certainly made me realize two important things that may help you, too... 1. Life is about breathing everything that it has to offer in, and about making what you do an experience rather than a chore. 2. Unless you start, you won't have a chance of finishing. And...it's only people who start who make the most of their life - whether they finish or not. Thirty minutes ago - I was thinking that perhaps I should eat as I wasn't in the mood to write anything. Instead - I just started...and whether you liked it or - I got what I need to achieve done. Now I think I'll reward myself with some more watching as life shares it's experiences with me. And it didn't cost me a single thing to make the most of it.
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