Knowing the people who matter most

‘It’s not who you’ve known,

but who you’re knowing’

Who are you ‘knowing’? Who do you spend time listening to?  Who do you make efforts to understand?  Who do you treasure learning little details about? Who are you aware of?  Who are you insightful about?  Who do you share living with?

Work colleagues, acquaintances, celebrities, no one?

Friends, family, your partner, your children, yourself?

Right now, today, who have you spent time and energy ‘knowing’?  Pause and actually answer the question to yourself. 

Incidentally, the quote comes from the Eels song ‘I like the way this is going’.  The song is a beautiful romantic love song, but most of the lyrics work perfectly for a love song from parent to child.  And in case you are getting hooked by grand ideas of what this ‘knowing’ might involve, the song includes the lines:

‘I like to watch TV with you,

there’s really nothing that I would rather do

Then maybe we can go to bed,

and get up and do it all again.’

Who do you sit in comfortable acceptance with?  Who do you share, actually share, the everyday realities of your life with?  Who shares the mundane realities of their life with you?  And… can you take joy in that?  Can you dwell within the everyday moment?  Can you live that so ordinary day and live it fully, really being with the people you are with whether they be friends, family, your partner, your children or even just yourself?  Can you pause, dwell in the ordinary moment and say, ‘there’s really nothing that I would rather do’?

‘It’s not who you’ve known,

but who you’re knowing

I like the way this is going’ the Eels

Apply it to your life:  Who are you knowing?  Dwell in that ordinary moment with the people that matter in your life.

I like the way this is going 

The Eels website