Sometimes, life doesn’t whisper to us, it screams at us. The signs aren’t subtle; they’re loud, obvious, disruptive. A bird barking instead of singing. A sunrise that doesn’t warm. A familiar street that suddenly feels foreign, but still, we dismiss it. We rationalize, minimize, scroll past, keep moving. Because acknowledging the sign would mean facing what we’ve been avoiding.

Human beings are masters of selective hearing. We tune into comfort and drown out confrontation. Even when the universe sends barking birds, clear anomalies, we pretend it’s just another day. We wait for bigger proof, clearer language, louder warnings. But often, the message has already arrived. We just didn't want to understand it. Ignoring signs doesn’t delay the inevitable, it just ensures that when the truth hits, it hits harder. Because the signs don’t stop showing up. They just become consequences. Barking birds are not mistakes; they are messengers. Life speaks through discomfort, through patterns, through instinct.

The question is: will we keep pretending not to hear them? Or will we finally stop, listen, and respond before the noise turns into silence?

Thought-provoking reflections on life, identity and relationships, written in the style of a modern-day Socratic journal and told through poetic paradoxes and emotional honesty.

by Paul Strydom.

© Paul Strydom. All rights reserved.

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Read, reflect, agree, disagree, or just see things differently.

 

 

Copyright © Paul Strydom