I have had a lot of things racing through my mind lately, and today seemed to be the tipping point. On my lunch break, I went for a short walk to try and clear my mind and my burdensome heart, and this was the result of my walk….

As I was walking, I kept replaying all the things that have had me down lately. I started feeling sorry for myself noticing I was walking with my head down watching my feet move forward- left then right left then right. My shoulders were slumped over, and I know anyone watching me would think I was a pathetic excuse for a bad day.

After about 20 minutes into my walk, I grew tired of being selfish with negative emotions. It wasn’t doing me any good walking around feeling sorry for myself and thinking about all the crappy things about life. So instead, I started to just observe. I pretended like I was invisible- that no one could see me, and I just watched. I completely absorbed the moment and watched as life was happening right in front me. Every anticipated step was a thought of the future, every step I was in was a gift of the present and every step I took was a memory of the past. I only felt truly alive in the gift of the present… so I sat down with hopes of freezing the moment. It felt like that anyway. More or less, I froze my life as I thought fluidly about the life of the people around me.

Sitting there, watching and observing, I realized that people are my source of healing. I feed off the energy of other people. Their personalities, nonverbals, actions, stories, advice and experiences are the food I need to nourish my energy supply. A life without other people is not a life at all. We need each other. We need each other to heal.

I think the greatest beauty in life is the beauty of human life. We are all brought to this world with the same love and innocence deep within. We grow up in different circumstances, we’re surrounded by different stories and we mature through different experiences, but we all have the same love and breathe of life within us. Watching people go about their day gave me a new appreciation for life- just how fragile and beautiful it really is.

We are all connected somehow in someway. We have all had those moments of “Wow! What a small world..”, but we need to start embracing it. The people that directly impact our lives- mentors, advisers, loved ones, friends, family, etc.- are the ones that give us the most energy. They are the ones we run to when life seems out of our control, but we also need to embrace the people we aren’t particularly close to. Whether they enter our life for five seconds then leave or remain in our lives for years, we need observe each other, appreciate and respect each other, and embrace the idea of genuine kindness toward one another. Why? Because we need each other.