It ‘s a busy life, as we jump from one activity to another. Paradoxically, in order to create the ideal, peaceful world that exists in only our mind. The IT manager struggles to meet his clients and his golf game (to meet more clients!), the recent graduate juggles deadlines and shopping lines, the working mother makes place for P.A. days in her crowded appointment diary…
As I peer out the window of my tenth floor flat overlooking highway 401, I see an endless stream of cars in a nonstop flow.
As I peer out the window of my tenth floor flat overlooking highway 401, I see an endless stream of cars in a nonstop flow.
And then, I think about a question Eckhart Tolle asks his readers in his celebrated book,”The Power of Now”. Imagine all humans removed from the planet, and only plants and animals left behind. Imagine every man made structure removed as well, leaving only what is natural behind. In terms of civilizations as we define it today, this is probably a giant step backwards. But yet, it will be a place with zero stress, and infinite time. As Lao Tzu says, “Nature never hurries, yet accomplishes everything”.
You join a new job, and want to be the Employee of the Year in the first month. You have a baby, bless you, and can’t wait for her to attend university? Relationships break at record speed today; for who has time to slowly nurture them? Each year buzzes past, leaving behind a flurry of activities, and hardly any memories.
I find myself caught up in this rush a number of times. And then, I take time to remember that time is an illusion. It is created by the society that I live in- but it does not have to define me. I do not have to live by this society’s norms of success or it’s idea of time. Candles on my birthday cake are not my reflection. And just as I am done celebrating my independence of time, I get sucked in the activity-whirlpool again. Hopefully, with time, I’ll have better control over what I think…
