It has been an interesting few days. I have spent time with two people who know nothing of each other but both told me how hard it is for them to slow down.
One has moved to the from a major global metropolis to the Island and another away from a big city to a smaller one. They both told me how uncomfortable they are with the slower pace and with what appears to be the low brow culture.
They miss being Busy.
What is it about "Busy". Ask someone how they are and you will often get the response "Busy". No one tells you what they are doing, they just comment on the process of their activity. The saddest part of the Busy addiction is that usually busy people are involved in activity that ends up nowhere. Think of government. Anyone in Government feel that they have pulled off any breakthrough in the last 10 years? I doubt it. Yet everyone is so busy there.
How did being busy become a goal in life?
Does this start with what we do with our kids today? If it is 4, it is dance classes, the music lessons, then softball. What happened to play? What happened to getting good at something - for when your kid does 5 things, they do 5 things badly. When they do the things that you think are important, they learn to go along with the flow. In instead of achievement, we get addicted to activity. In time we confuse the two.
You can be so busy that you lose your life. David Whyte has a great moment in the Heart Aroused where a woman in a corporate workshop says quietly to the room
"Ten years ago...
I turned my head for a moment
and it became my life"
Remind you of anyone you know?
