Truly, it is amazing how deeply we are absorbed in the absolutely trivial in life. How many people live a life that is actually worth living (not that I am questioning the value of human life: I am questioning the use people make of theirs), with an awareness of who they are, where they are going, where they have come from, and their reasons for their actions (self-awareness, in sum); and how many people are caught up in living life blindly, moment by moment, never raising their heads above the smog of the daily grind/drudge to actually take a look around them, reassess their priorities, and see what life is all about?

It is exactly like a quote I once heard from someone famous:

Life is what happens while you are doing something else.

I have found in my own life that there are only a few things which are truly important, and everything else is dispensable. It may be interesting or urgent (not the same as important!) or stressful or relaxing or a host of other adjectives, and many things are worth keeping in one's life that are not truly important, but those other things can come or go with no lasting or significant/serious effect. The few must be preserved for life to remain meaningful. These are ultimately a list of priorities, to put things back in perspective, revive one's self-awareness, and practice a life above the smog. My list (for now, in stream-of-thought order [NOT order of importance, though the first is most important]):

1. My walk with God, and all that goes with it. This gets as simple and practical as the fact that when I don't take time to have morning devotions, my day goes kaput; and as deep and meaningful as the absolute necessity of my belief in Christ and His ability to save.
   
2. Meaningful relationships with true friends and loved ones
3. Self-acceptance
4. Purpose/direction. This goes back to the Biblical quote: "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Proverbs 29:18.

At first it may have sounded like I was referring to physical objects or activities as being important, but when everything else is stripped away, the important things are inside.

I admit that I spend time in the smog, worrying about what people think of me and who likes whom and other trivial matters, but I, too, must continually recapture the vision, and choose again to live life above the smog.