Saturday, September 7, 2013

OVERSCHEDULED


 
 
We often base fulfillment on attaining things that we have done to impress others.  In the busy life of Internet based meetings, constant social contact, 24 hour TV, 3 shifts of work; individuals often forget they are…..individual.  It is very tempting to bury your head and just “work your hours” and go home.  There is so much going on, slowing down the bill paying machine to find your “old heart song” is too overwhelming.  It gets buried under our multi-task “to do lists” and family raising duties that living for “what I want from life” isn’t worth the effort of extracting it from deep within.   Then before you know it, your health has taken a hit, mid-life strikes and you are in too deep with the aftermath of attaining all those material things that gave temporary satisfaction. 

End game is no progress to goal/no happiness.  But now we have physical ailments and suffering, minimal at first but always ramping up quickly as the medical problems accumulate…..there goes all the savings!  A doctor I just shared my journey with told me he gave up his practice after his divorce; suffered a heart attack after selling his practice; is now alone and drives to another state to be with his kids 2 weekends a month.   Told me he has tried to meditate to find his path in life but it seems too big of a task to begin.  I told him, yes it is but the beauty is you are in control of the choice to change and a small beginning ……..is still growth and progress to your forgotten goal. 

From the Dalai Lama XIV

“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”