Rethinking Awareness

How is this idea of a "mythic journey" communicated to the young people we encounter day to day? How do they come to the understanding that each trial they face presents a choice between hope and despair, possibility and cynicism, bondage and freedom? How do we make them aware of the existence of the journey and how it begins? There is no formula and easy step-by-step set of instructions for doing so. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Each young person is different and has faced different trials and made different choices in their lives.

Be Aware

How many times has a young person come up to you wanting your full attention, and you have given only half or a quarter of it? Maybe even at that, I’m being a little generous. So often, we as adults are physically present when the adolescents in our lives try to engage us, but mentally we are somewhere else. We nod and look in their general direction, but our minds are focused on bills, the work that is piling up, the television, or any number of other distractions. It is incumbent upon us to start being fully present in the moment, to be fully aware.