This morning as I was reading, my daughter was playing in the living room. She was acting a bit hyper and throwing herself around without a care in the world and as she thumped on the ground with her body, I kept telling her to be careful with her body because it’s the only one she has. I kept asking her to pay attention to her surroundings after a minor bump on the head on the coffee table. I must have said something to the effect of, “Be careful,” at least 3 times. Then as she came jumping onto the couch acting like a clown she bounced backward and smacked her head pretty good on the same coffee table that I had warned her to be careful of several times before. When her head smacked the table, out came the first words that popped in my head… spewing out of my mouth in reactivity was something to the effect of, “Well that was idiotic!”
As the words came flying out of my mouth, I wanted to shove them back in and then started explaining to her that I am frustrated because I warned her at least 3 times to be more aware of her surroundings, to be careful with her body, to be aware of what she was doing and avoid the dangers around her. Then I told her to take her mind off the hurting on her head and told her that when she stopped thinking about it, it would stop hurting. Sure enough, that worked. As I sat and reflected on the situation, I realized that this was a good message for a blog.
This morning I was speaking to my 5-year-old, but it got me thinking about how often adults go through life carelessly, bumping into things, hurting themselves and others, not really heeding the warnings that the universe puts out there for them. It made me reflect on how much like children we truly are. How often do we see grown adults leaving bars intoxicated and jumping behind the wheel of a car without a care in the world despite all the warnings that have come before the moment they are making that decision? We frequently see incidents of drunk driving accidents taking the lives of others before their time on the news. We read health reports of the negative effect of alcohol on the body. We are told repeatedly that it isn’t a healthy decision and yet, so often, we choose to overlook the warnings and just do what we feel is “fun” in the moment.
Or, if that doesn’t resonate, how many of you have stayed in a relationship despite the warning signals that it was not a healthy situation for you to be in? How many of you have allowed yourself to be disrespected by your partner or “friends”? How many of you have been in an abusive relationship? So often, we hear people state, after the fact, that they should have known better because the warning signals were there, but they chose not to heed them because they felt they could change or control the situation. How many of you have chosen to overlook the hard evidence that your partner was not that into you because you just wanted to be loved?
How many of you have worked against the warnings of your soul that a job was not a good fit for you? I can certainly relate to this one in my life at the moment. I realize that I am using the excuse of financial security to keep on doing a job that is unfulfilling, stressful, and dangerous to the health of my soul. Each time the stress hits and the irritation grows, I am being warned that this is not the right fit for me, yet Monday comes and I’m back at it again… on the same commute, to a place that I really don’t care to be. I’m there, wanting to be writing and working on what matters to me, wanting to pour myself and my energy into my writing and into my work of teaching others how to lead more effective, healthier, and fulfilling lives. I’m taking baby steps in that direction, instead of taking the leap of faith as the advice of many successful individuals state to build your dream while maintaining the financial security of your day job, although my spirit is telling me otherwise.
We warn our children against the results of carelessness, yet many of us are not following our own advice. While we are reprimanding them for being careless, we are leading our lives carelessly when the stakes are much higher. As adults, some of our careless decisions mean the difference between life and death (drunk driving example), between love and hate (relationship example), between joy and despair (work example). When is it that we will realize that we need to heed the warning signs available to us in the lives of others, through history, through universal signs, and through our intuition? When will begin to trust the evidence that surrounds us and start making smarter choices? When are we going to choose life, love, and joy? When are we going to start taking our lives more seriously and start living them intentionally instead of carelessly? I don’t know about you, but for me, that time is now!
What careless decisions have you made? What situations have you created for yourself, despite knowing better? What signals were presented to you that allowed you to know better? Why do you feel you didn’t listen? What excuses did you make? Share in the comments section.