We take almost everything for granted; our breathing, walking and above all – being alive.
If we could not breathe for two minutes, and then regain our breathing back – at that point we don’t take our breathing for granted, every breath we take is a great gift and blessing, not like before, when we took our ability to breath – for granted.
If we would be paralyzed from the waist down for 3 years, and a new operation allowed us to walk again – what would the experience of walking be for us compering to how it was when we took it for granted before we became paralyzed.
My friend came from the 1973 war witnessing his friends being killed all around him and himself was under real danger of being killed. Said to me when he was just back, that now, just the experience of being able to walk in the street, only to be alive was such a tantalizing amazing experience, he doesn’t want it to stop forever, just this. I met him few weeks later and he admitted: “it is going away”, “I am losing it” he said, he was sliding back to take him being alive for granted.
What is the alternative? To live in a constant state of wonderment concerning gifts and blessings (like the being alive, being healthy, being able to breathe and being able to walk, and other gifts and blessings).
But we tend to flatten almost everything, especially those things that demand special attention or wonderment (like the gift of being alive). The dominance and control of taking things for granted – makes us live in a flatland, where everything is the same, and why is that? Well, in order that the burden and the weight of the attention and wonderment won’t be a burden upon us.
Taking things for granted eases our degree of inner effort.
And here is a paradox: The more rare and precious is something we meet – the greater is the demand for inner attention and wonderment, and because of our resistance towards the extra inner effort involved, the more we take this precious thing – for granted…
For example: a special, outstanding text: A conventional essay could be appreciated more or less, but exceptional high or outstanding essay – requires an extra, deeper attention, and this is too much effort for the conventional reader, who, paradoxically (again), will take it for granted (which stands in opposite relation to how special it is…).
We should take nothing for granted, because almost everything has something to wonder at, because everything has this mystery alive in it.
Gabriel