Winter's Almost Over, Spring Is Almost Here!

Had to go out and do a few things today, and managed an hour in the sun.  It was starting to get a bit warm out there, so much that I was feeling a bit uncomfortable for it.  It won't be long now before it is too hot in the midday sun for me and my fair complexion and reddish hair, and I will once again be back to looking for shade in whatever form it comes and forgetting to bring my hat when I need it. 

It still therefore, boggles my mind why I choose to own a convertible some days, but then I get out on a warm winter day and enjoy the interplay of warm sun and cool wind, while the road flows under my wheels.  I feel the connection that is unique to open air driving, that thing we lose when we travel in cars with the windows up and the air-conditioner always on.  It's that connection to the mechanical noises, the road, the sounds of other cars, and to the smells of the world around us.  Motorcyclists know it well, even as they balance on two wheels and try to avoid the blissed out masses with the windows up, the air-con going, and the radio blasting while they text on their phones, who are as determined to wipe them out as any Volvo driver ever was in years gone by.

I think we miss that connection to the world around us and surround ourselves with little cocoons, whether it as we walk down the street with our headphones in, or wrapped in a cocoon of our anxieties and worries.  All the things that stop us from being mindful and aware of the world and other people.  It becomes a way of losing spiritual situational awareness, and often we don't realise the trouble we are headed for until it is too late, and we are headed for the cliff and about to plummet into the abyss beyond. 

Materialism and love of things will conspire to wrap us in a soft warm cocoon of ignorance to the world around us.  So, put the roof down, take the headphones out, turn the telly off, step away from the computer, wind the windows down, go out in the garden and connect with nature and humanity.  Enjoy the sensations and be mindful and enjoy the genuine joy and bliss that comes from being a part of the whole, and not just an individual imprisoned in a cocoon.