...be aware

We’re approaching that time of the year, again, when we will be celebrating Jesus’ birth. Over and above it is time for families to be together, have fun and just relax in the company of their loved ones. However I have observed (painfully so) how this time consumes heavily on the pockets of people. I watch in shopping malls as children drag their parents for expensive designer clothes, how much people spend on gifts, groceries and how they act. In most instances I wonder if people are aware that January is approaching, with its demands and challenges and at the beginning of the year people’s lives are in crisis because they have spent more than they could afford.
Sometimes people do feel dissatisfied with who they are. Perhaps they are frustrated with where they are in life. Maybe they just wish that their lives were different! These are not uncommon feelings - a great number of people struggle with these feelings. In most cases the common cause is lack of meaning and purpose. When we feel like we are valuable, able to make a significant difference, we tend to be more at peace, more fulfilled. On the other hand when we feel like we’re not making much of a difference to the world around us, and that we’re not value for who we are and what we can do, we then tend to be less happy, less at peace and less settled.
I believe awareness is not intelligence or knowledge. In my view awareness comes through an open mind, it is a new concept to the individual. It is a knowing of something previously unknown. Like a light going on. Paulo Coelho asserts that a person “can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own, it’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle”
Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word crisis. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis be aware of the danger - but recognise the opportunity. May we be aware of the dangers of over-spending this festive season and recognise the opportunity we might create for our loved ones if we save a little.
To God Be Glory.

Yours

Solomzi