Time. Are we short of it, or just not know how to enjoy it?
Don't get me wrong, I love where we live. It's beautiful, we have both sets of grandparents near by, our siblings are close and every single possible amenity is a mere arms length away.
Now here is the problem about living where we live:
Every single possible amenity is a mere arms length away.
I once read an article about a crazy busy Los Angeles family that gave it all up and moved to Oregon to start a Lavender farm. Their biggest activity was spotting the FedEx truck on the long country road to their home a few times a month.
There are days that this sounds so nice.
Today we live busy, busy, hectic lives. There is so much good in the daily grind, but there is a lot that just, well, feels like a grind.
I majored in Sociology in college and I'll never forget an assignment we had that was discussing how technology advancements effect lives.
What it came down to was this:
We strive to make life easier so that we have more time to enjoy our families, our hobbies, our lives. Basically time to enjoy having TIME. So instead of hand washing our clothes in a bucket and line drying, we invented a washing machine. Now the 1/2 day chore, takes only a few hours. Well why not invent a dishwasher, then we'll have even more free time? OK now we have chores down to a few hours, so let's invent a car so we can get places faster. And a phone, and a vaccuum that runs itself, and, and, and.
The more we invent, the easier our lives are supposed to become. Except now we either need to have an outside job to support the purchasing and running of those "helpers", or we feel guilty for doing NOTHING, so we fill our time with more things. In the end, did we really give ourselves more free time to enjoy life?
Have you ever heard the story of the fisherman on a Mexico beach? A tourist sees a man fishing a few days in a row and notices the overwhelming number of fish he is catching in a short time period.
He approached him one day and asked if he had ever thought of starting a business.
The man replied, "No, why would I?"
The tourist, "Well you could be very successful at it and make a lot of money."
"But what would I do then?"
"Well, after a few years you could teach others to fish as you do, and earn even more money."
"But then what?"
"Well then after a few more years you would be more established, and people would know you, and you could write a book, start a fishing company, maybe take your system public then you could sell it for loads of money."
"But why would I need to do that?"
"So you could retire and enjoy the fruits of your years and years of labor."
"But what would I do then?"
"You could live on a beautiful beach somewhere and just fish to your hearts content."
"But that's what I do now...."
Hmmmm. It's so easy to get caught up in everything around us, and to purchase the next thing that will make our lives easier. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I have all of those things "to make my life easier". But sometimes it's just nice to spend the day with my kids. Put my hands in the dirt, paint rocks, collect leaves all without worrying about what I need to do or buy next (and how to earn that money) to make our lives a little easier.
So I've decided that since we are not moving to Oregon to start a lavender farm, that I'm going to start enjoying more of my time. Today I had a date lunch with my husband. As dinners require another sitter, and more money and we are often too tired to eat let alone speak, we decided we would have a lunch date once a week just to enjoy time together. Sometimes it isn't about what we need or how to get more...
Sometimes it's just about enjoying the time you have.
Original Orange County Moms Blog post.
When she's not struggling to find more time in her day, Shanna can be found sharing "Simple Tips, Fresh Ideas, and Great Products" For making busy lives brighter at My Favorite Everything. (You might also find her enjoying a wonderful, stress free lunch with her husband - before returning to Facebook and Twitter, @MyFavEverything...).
