How Aware Are You Of The Life You Are Living?

P.S. This story is true, but was written this way to protect the innocent.

Carla ignored the call after glancing at her cellphone. It ran ten more times. Her instincts alerted her, and she closed her laptop. She was about to exit her office when her door burst open and her cousin Pamela barged in, demanding, “You’re not answering your phone!”

“Because I aim to avoid hell,” she said, stepping back towards her desk. Sitting in one of the three armchairs, her clients would sit on, facing her desk. She asked, “What did Devon do this time?”

Pamela huffed and puffed, then released after sitting beside her, “I don’t understand. He wasn’t raised with or by his father. In fact, his father died when he was ten years old.”

“You don’t understand how he, whose father didn’t raise him, can imitate all of his father’s dangerous lifestyle that he didn’t see,” Carla recited, staring at her.

“And the children he raised, who lived and saw everything horrible and disgusting he did, don’t,” Pamela regretted.

Carla sighed, reading the pain that showed in her eyes, reminding her, “I couldn’t represent him in his last two court appearances, and I can’t represent him now. I am his Aunt, it’s a conflict of interest.”

“You are more educated than I am, and know lots of stuff I don’t,” her cousin rants. “How is it possible for his brothers to stay on the side of the law, and all they saw was their father breaking it? And he grew up with us being on the side of the law, and he can’t stop breaking it,” she asked again, demanding an answer.

Carla sighed again, nodded, then attempted to explain, “Life is full of mysteries and things no humans can comprehend. Some things are passed down or inherited through his genes.”

“His father was raised by a mother and other family members who obeyed the law and were never arrested. Not even a parking ticket anyone got,” Pamela went on.

“Maybe it’s what fate and destiny demand,” Carla suggested.

“Why would they want to destroy my child’s life?”

“Children will inherit traits from their parents that the eyes or science cannot see or understand,” Carla informs.

“But I thought their environment and upbringing play a significant role in their lives,” Pamela raged.

“Don’t get mad at me!” Carla said, easing up. She walked around her desk, sat down facing her, and refreshed her memory, “Your son is thirty-eight years old. His life is his decisions. He made his life the way it is — not you, not fate, not destiny, or all of what his father did!”

Silence allows anger and thoughts to simmer, making room for understanding to emerge.

“So, you are saying that his brothers saw hell in their lives and made conscious, smarter heavenly decisions,” Pamela’s understanding dictates.

With popped eyes and a smile, Carla agreed, “I don’t know what your son saw, but his life is his choice. He made his decision with all of what he knew, learned, experienced, and was taught.”

Nodding, tears streaming down, “I still can’t understand how his positive, healthy, and loving environment and upbringing didn’t impact his life accordingly.”

‘I don’t have the answers,” Carla informs.

“Who does?” she demands.

“Life and your son.”

“What are you saying?” Pamela’s anger questioned.

“He probably isn’t aware of how he is living and his life decisions,” Carla tries to understand her nephew’s lifestyle.

“With all of the pain he is enduring and putting his family through. How could he not be aware!” burst from her rage.

“He keeps repeating the same mistakes despite the same painful results,” Carla interjects. “He can’t be aware.”

In understanding, Pamela said, “Thought you didn’t have the answers,” glaring at her from across her desk.

“That’s the only answer I can come up with. Because his brothers were aware, they made better decisions.”

I don’t think many humans are aware of some of their life decisions. Being aware gives us the sense to make good, sensible life choices. All of us have been at a point in our lives when we make decisions unconsciously that harm us and others.

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

Awareness is power. Power to make common-sense life decisions without pain, but with kindness, love, and empathy, not only for ourselves but for others.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.