We Are All Humans

I had the strangest experience last night on the tube on my way back home.

Perhaps I was feeling tired or still feeling the effects of an "indulgent" Sunday afternoon, but I suddenly became very aware of all the passengers on my carriage.

Every single one of them.

I could sense their breath, the heat off their body, their presence within that limited space.

It suddenly dawned on me that every day, I come close to people I will never see again.

Every day, on that tiny carriage, whether it's only a 5 minute journey or an interminable one, I'll be standing right next to another HUMAN BEING.

Not someone whose presence irritates me cause they are elbowing me right in my stomach as we're all squeezed in onto this packed train.

Or whose breath lingers over my head (I'm only small, so I do get "breathed over" quite a lot!!!) wanting me to pass out.

Not even someone whose voice is so irritating they should be banned from talking publicly forever!

I'm talking about other human beings.

Like you and I.

These days it's just so easy to forget this.

We are all exhausted and often don't pay any attention at all to what's around us.

I often find amazing how the same people will be taking the same train day in, day out without ever feel the need to acknowledge each other, left alone smile.

Head down on our phone or tablet, we'll be making our way into work or back home unable to find any connection to whoever is right next to us.

A client told me once of the desire to relocate to Asia for a bit in search of herself.

She told me of how she was longing to live a more "soul led" life and allow her heart to open more.

I suggested she should take the tube during rush hour first.

No kidding.

It always amazes me when people move across the world hoping to become "better selves".

And I always tell them the same:

"go & learn to be a better human right where you are first! Then move wherever you wish!

I was attacked a couple of years back on the same tube I take every day.

It was early in the morning and I had the brilliant idea to get on the same carriage as three drunken (and God knows what else!) teenagers.

I just thought to myself, despite a very strong hunch things were about to turn ugly, that no one was going to start my day in the wrong day.

Well they did!

Next thing I knew, I was getting spat on and kicked, while my hair was being pulled so hard that I really worried I was going to be bald for the rest of my days.

And yet, people around really struggled to get involved and come to my rescue.

It was only in the end that someone decided to step in and help me out, and yet I wasn't angry.

What I learnt that day is that no matter who we are, we all have one thing in common.

All of us.

We all just want to be Happy.

And in that wish, we all have the same Fears.

Fear that there won't be enough life for us to live, enough joy to feel, enough love to keep us safe.

But mostly, fear that we will never be enough for a world that keeps on demanding our very soul.

And so there I stood, for what felt like an eternity, surrounded by all these strangers who suddenly didn't feel so strange anymore.

Only less frightening and a little bit more human.

In that new awareness, my heart ached for all the times we forget that, before the "You, I and They", we're all just Human Beings.

Antonia Lyons

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