Keeping sight of what is important
I recently experienced a rather painful injury to my left eye. My 7 month old managed to poke me in the eye while we were playing, and I ended up with a 5mm corneal abrasion. While not an incredibly serious injury, a 5mm corneal abrasion (dead center on the eye, mind you) is very painful and it drastically reduces your ability to see. It hurts to blink, it hurts not to blink. You end up in a constant state of trying to find the least painful direction to look, and the darkest corner of the room in which to do it. Due to the lateness of the hour, I had to wait until morning to see an eye doctor and by the time morning finally came, I was in agony. To put it bluntly, the experience totally sucked.
I must admit that I did find some value in the experience, however. When nearly every aspect of your daily life relies on your ability to see relatively clearly, losing that ability stops you in your tracks. This might sound a bit obvious, but it is difficult to truly understand it without experiencing it first hand. You find yourself relying on your other senses to help you get through the day. Feeling your way around, listening for the dog so you don’t step on the poor thing, hoping you remember where the coffee table is. You end up relying more and more on your other senses to get you through the day, especially the sense of touch.
It was the act of feeling my way down the hall to find the bathroom that gave me the idea behind this article. During our normal day to day lives, many of us simply go about our routines. We have goals that we seek to achieve, and most of us approach our goals with familiar and obvious methodology. This may get the job done, but could we be missing something? I definitely think so.
Take income for example. I want to buy a new car and a new house. The obvious path would be to work a steady job, saving as much as possible while attempting to maintain a good credit score and wait until I have gathered the resources to achieve the goal. But is that the only way? Is that the best way? What other options are available to me? Should I work two jobs? That is what many people do, shouldn’t I do the same thing?
I think it is time to approach life from a different perspective, examine more options, find a better way to move forward. There is more to life than the daily grind, and I intend to find a better way. Rather than watch my life pass me by, I am going to feel it. Smell it. Taste it. I am going to listen for new opportunities and look around to see what life has to offer, rather than keep my eyes on the path laid out before me. I am going to evaluate all of my options and lay out a new plan for my life. A plan that is right for my family. A plan that is right for me.
Don’t follow a path because it’s all you see. I am not saying you should go rob a bank, but don’t be afraid to go outside the norm. Life has no meaning if you aren’t happy. Wouldn’t you agree?