I am a practitioner of vigilance. This means that I pay attention to happenings in my environment and situation, especially when I am outside my home. I want to encourage you to practice awareness of the people and situations that are in your vicinity for a number of reasons.

The first is that the voice of opportunity is often quiet, and for those who are not vigilant will rarely detect it.

The second is that there is an ‘inner voice’ that often quietly warns of incipient threats. Again, if one is distracted or otherwise engaged, this voice will not be heard.

Thirdly, I like to practice greeting those who I pass on the street, often with a sincere smile, nod, or tip of the head. Sharing smiles with strangers, and sharing greetings with people who are otherwise often confused, frightened or isolated is a wonderful experience that often leads to genuine happiness, joy, and playful ‘re-recognition’ of one another.

Lastly, it is important to monitor actual threats so that one is aware of them prior to their immediate intervention or effect. This includes vehicular threats, persons who are disoriented or angry, predators, and other threats from or to animals or other creatures that may be nearby.

Vigilance is a rewarding practice, and actually tends to reduce, rather than amplify feelings of anxiety, ambient fear, the need for self-protection, anger, and confusion. To practice vigilance is to practice awareness itself, although this is but one petal on that flower.

The same is true, of course, in electronic environments, where we must be able to detect false media, lies, conversion cons, contagious media that is toxic, and develop the capacity to ‘vet’ (to analyze for appropriateness or verity) the vast storms of electronic objects and conversion gambits we are ceaselessly subjected to in these environments.