Open Your Eyes

From the day we first open our eyes we find ourselves fascinated. I guess finding yourself in a brightly lit room, surrounded by strange people engaging in even stranger behaviour (the weird sounds meant to amuse babies) is bound to have one very fascinated by the anthropology.

Being of the highest level in the hierarchy of the animal kingdom one would think we would be more receptive to the world and all it holds. Yet, how often do we just truly enjoy ourselves? We spend endless hours in the continuous cycle, running around in circles, achieving nothing while our minds idle away before succumbing to atrophy from disuse.

What ever happened to plain old living? To waking up in the morning and hatching a diabolical plan regarded raising the blood pressure of the neighbour next door? For all you know, what keeps him alive is the knowledge that he has to protect his precious petunias from evil masterminds such as yourself.

Mechanical living can only take you so far. We’ve all heard it before: live your life now instead of waking up one day and realising your life is over before it has even begun. The thing is we hear people say this all the time because rarely do we truly meet others who have achieved this. We live our lives in reverse. We try to maximise on every experience as we grow up but when we reach a certain age we become so overtly obsessed with finding love and money, we forget that what makes us alive is our ability to open ourselves up to the world around us.

Being a hippie of sorts I revel in simply sitting in the middle of a grassy expanse and allowing the world to pass me by. Put technology in the back pocket, close your mind to all things dark and worrisome and simply be. In those few minutes or hours you find your life is balanced so perfectly on the ledge of the unknown. In that moment the fear, anger, anguish and pain of day to day living trickles away into the darkness below your feet and you are free – literally standing on the edge of everything about to take the plunge… You take a deep breath; taste the sulphur on your tongue. Your lips are dry from the strength of the wind up so high and just as you muster up the courage to take the elusive “leap of faith” you open your eyes.

That moment of intense serenity can never truly be recaptured for the moment you open your eyes everything comes rushing back. However, once you have experienced the exhilaration of simply being in touch with nature you will find yourself addicted for life. Nothing can come close.

So while we should open our eyes to the world around us, we should also open up ourselves to the potential that resides within us. Live and let be and keep your eyes closed long enough to take the jump.