Are We Building Stress into Our Lives?

I now spend hours daily answer­ing e-mails. Of course, it’s true that I spend less time on the phone and I’m han­dling a greater vol­ume of traf­fic. But this raises the ques­tion, where are we head­ing at such ever-increasing speed?

The Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland explains to Alice, “Now, here, you see, it takes all the run­ning you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get some­where else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

Are we los­ing some­thing in the trans­ac­tion of exchang­ing our present for a future toward which we need to race faster and faster?  

One of the great things about tak­ing a vaca­tion in new sur­round­ings and see­ing the sights is that we focus on where we are. It’s most often fun, and we come back pos­si­bly tired but cer­tainly refreshed. But is it smart to race through fifty weeks in order to enjoy  our­selves for the other two? Can we have some revi­tal­iza­tion in our daily lives?

To answer this ques­tion, my wife and I decided to give the past and future a tem­po­rary rest and focus on our present envi­ron­ment. While we were dri­ving, we enjoyed the fall foliage and noticed some trees with unique pods we hadn’t seen before. It was some nat­ural beauty we responded to. Later, we were cook­ing din­ner and saw that the olive oil driz­zled in the pan came out look­ing like a Chinese char­ac­ter. These lit­tle obser­va­tions illus­trate a sim­ple point: there are things to see if you’re looking. 

I won­der what other beauty and magic our pre-mall-age chil­dren see that we are speed­ing by? Is our fre­netic race toward ill-defined ful­fill­ment in a neb­u­lous future caus­ing us to miss the real show?

 What do you think? Email me at ken@organicconnectmag.com.

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