Don’t sleep along the way

Glen Dhliwayo

THE most common means of transport all over the world is road transport. Many are so used to the routine of travelling, especially by road, so much that they have lost the excitement of travelling. The roadside has many things to see from which life lessons can be drawn. The analogy is simple to draw once because life is a journey in itself.

A strikingly common occurrence when travelling in long distance buses is the sight of one too many sleeping passengers.
Some sleep as soon as they embark on the bus, while others will sleep a few kilometres into the journey.

The reasons for sleeping on the road vary from person to person but the major one is lack of excitement.
That is the mistake most people commit. Many a time it’s because they are ignorant of the importance and significance of road trips to the mother of all journeys — life!

The inquisitive and wise will try not to sleep on any journey even if they frequently take the journey.
The roadside has some of the most important life lessons that should never be missed by any person who is a devoted learner. All learners are hungry for opportunities to learn new things and the roadside is a good lecture room.

The sojourner needs to only have an observant look and a keen attention to detail and they are guaranteed to draw various and important life lessons.

The same also applies to our life. Some people have become so much accustomed to breathing that they metaphorically sleep while in their own life journeys.

They lose all interest in the direction their life is going and even get to the extent of switching off focus from their life.
They are not different from the sleeping traveller in a bus. If you are willing to draw life lessons you need not sleep on the road.

You have to be excited about your journey, open your eyes for observation and learning opportunities and then you are ascertained that you will grasp many important lessons for life.

While on the road especially to places you have never been, one of the most important lessons you can ever learn or borrow is adaptation methods of various societies and people.

Make no mistake; people in different communities have different ways of adapting to challenges.
Observing these different adaptation methods gives you the privilege of comparing your own ways with the observed ways and then accustoming the better methods to your own traditional methods.

Some people are so asleep in their own life journeys so much that they do not notice the difference in ways of life of people around them.
As such they stick to their ways, when they could probably have the ability to observe, compare and borrow from colleagues around them.

These are usually people who have decided to sleep on their life journey and as such they take no notice of the differences in others around them.

The road also gives you an opportunity to put things into perspective. While you might be hiding in your own little corner of the world thinking you are probably in the worst situations life can avail, you might be shocked when travelling helps you realise that life is not so miserable after all.

This does not mean that you rationalise and sugar coat your misery but at least it helps you realise that you might be having it better than some other people.

Some people are convinced that they are probably in the worst of situations possible until they open their eyes to see that those around them are probably in worse off situations than them.

Frequent travellers, those who pay attention to detail will tell you of how things are now different on the same road that they have previously travelled.

Those who sleep along the way could never notice the differences and developments.
In your own life journey you can be the only one behind events because you slept along the way.

When you lose interest in your life journey, you take everything for granted such that you barely notice developments around you. This is why some people will always be stuck in the past; they are not even aware that things have since changed.

This analogy teaches us to treat life with an eager interest similar to that of a tourist. A tourist sets out to see as much as they can about the place they are visiting and as such they can even know the place better than the people who stay there.

Don’t sleep in your own life journey, set out to see and learn as much as you can.
Till next week, God bless you all.
Ciao…