When did we stop experiencing life and decided life was a job?
We work so hard for the means to live without making the time to live meaningfully.
We get well educated or trained so that we can find a good job. Those jobs are often stressful and demanding, and we spend our time off in front of a television, or on our phone, with a drink in hand, or a little pill that makes the day go away.
We drive ourselves sick producing things for who knows, faster and better and more efficiently, yet we have lost the art of seeing and being in the moment. We’ve lost the ability to dream of the possibilities, to contemplate life, and to breathe in the notion that we are alive, and that it all must mean something.
Since we don’t take much time to engage one another in meaningful conversation, it goes without saying that we probably don’t do much contemplating either. And being down in the dumps, wondering how to get out of a situation is not contemplation, that’s desperation. What I mean is, when do we just sit there, in a quiet space, or emerge ourselves in nature and simply wonder out loud?
Why don’t we wonder out loud?
Is it because we can’t put a time on it? Put a price on it? Package it in a app. Relese several updated versions of it. Monetize it? Consume it? Invest it? Trade it? Horde it?
We need moments. We need moments throughout each and every day of our life to be. To do nothing except reflect and be human.
That’s a nice thought you say. You have no idea how much I have to get to today. You don’t understand the pressure that I’m under. You don’t understand my boss. You don’t live with my spouse. You don’t have to parent my kids. You don’t have to face my problems.
You’re right.
You’re absolutely right. But I also hope that you’re happy.
I hope you’re happy doing. Repeating the same Groundhog Day, over and over again. Living from one holiday to another, one event to the next. One vacation after another. Paying one bill at a time. Saving for retirement. Counting your investments. Clearning your debt. I hope you’re truly happy because if you’re not, you should probably give something else a try.
Try living in the moment.
Try being. Without a clock. Without anyone watching. Without purpose. Without accountability. Try simply being. Being you at this very moment. Being you today. Being you tomorrow and for the rest of your life.
Changing your perspective from a life obsessed or blindly taught to do, to a life open to being is inseparable from happiness and health.
There is a time for everything. It doesn’t seem like there is but there is. What we often forget is that we are the masters and mistresses of our time. Nothing ever just happens in our life. Peace doesn’t happen. Peace is won. We have to make being happen.
The same is true with moments. You have to look for them. You have to find and embrace them. You have to seek them out, cuddle them, treasure them, and be grateful for their presence.
You have to work hard to look like you’re not working hard.
Living a life of being is not accidental. It is purposeful.
Say yes to life. Say yes to every moment that makes you human.
Begin with this one…
Cover photo generously provided by photographer Thomas Griesbeck via unsplash.com
