Awareness

Per Wikipedia, Awareness is the state of being conscious of something.  More specifically, is the ability to directly know and perceive, to feel, or to be cognizant of events.  To take it a step further, there are 35 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for awareness.

Whew!  That’s a lot of words about one thing.  Personally, I view awareness as being engaged and paying attention to what is going on within me along with the things around me or more widely known as situational awareness.  Usually within a time-frame of a few minutes, I can tell you what I have done during the day because I pay attention.

Yesterday morning, I got an IV that took 20 minutes.  During this time, I had several conversations with the nurse about the things she was putting in the IV, and I also had conversations with Laura and Johnny who were getting IV’s themselves.  I spoke to Kat on the way out and snagged a BOGO on IVs for the new year.  Next, I went to Kroger, picked up two bottles of Advil PM, two bottles melatonin, bread, beer, and lunch meat.  I spoke with Belinda when checking out at the self-service line.  I paid for the groceries, opened the umbrella, walked out to the truck, loaded the groceries, came home, unloaded the groceries, and sat down to write.  Those items above took place starting at 9:00 to about 10:15. For the most part, I can tell you that level of detail about my day.  I am not anal retentive about things.  I am just engaged.  I believe you must be engaged and aware to get the most out of life; otherwise, you can flounder around wondering what comes next.

On this 10th day of February, take a little time to determine your level of awareness.  Get engaged and live your best life.  You will be glad you did.