Awareness of myself. Awareness of others.

Negative events generally leave us feeling powerless. So when something good happens to us, our desire to take charge of our lives is so strong that, at the risk of missing out on what little good is happening to us, instead of surrendering to it, we withdraw from it, so as not to lose that illusion of control we need. Like skilled photographers, we take a snapshot of it and observe it with detachment. But life is a miracle of emotions that dissolves before our eyes at every moment. Nothing that can be governed or controlled, but something that can and must only be lived. At most, we can decide how much to take part in it. But in doing so, in an attempt to fit that photograph into a larger scene, we destroy the energy of that minute of happiness that came our way, dissipating it in anxiety and worry over everything it entails. Whether it lasts a moment, a day, a month, a year or a lifetime... it hardly matters! Only that minute mattered, only that minute needed to be celebrated.