Life is Important: Remember to Pause, be Grateful and Have Fun!
It's Memorial Day weekend, here in the US of A.
As proprietor of a small art gallery (among other things) I spent much of the day in the company of the greater "general public." It's actually a busy weekend, if you're a shopkeeper, because most people have three days off.
I also happen to live in a tourist town, so we get a LOT of visitors here.
The thing I noticed — as I people watched today — was the air of "busy-ness" so many people seem to have, even when they are on holiday. It's like there are "all these things we have to get done," even when we allegedly have time OFF.
Whatever happened to the idea of LEISURE? And the idea of doing things in a LEISURELY fashion?
I spent my teen years in the south of Spain, during a time when the afternoon "siesta" still meant something. Around 1:30 to 2:00 in the afternoon, everything quite simply SHUT DOWN, and you would have little hope of getting anything accomplished till about 5:00 in the evening. People enjoyed slow 2-hour lunches and perhaps even had an afternoon nap.
I always thought it was very civilized, even as a teenager.
But it freaked many people out. They weren't quite sure how to handle time that wasn't dedicated to "doing something."
Fast forward 40 years, and I watched these groups of friends and families seeming not RELAXED, but almost stressed out as they were running around trying to fit so much into an evident schedule.
This being Memorial Day weekend made me wonder if they had "pray and be grateful to grandpa who died in the war" on their schedules from 11:30-11:45... and would follow the schedule without really pausing to consider the actual import of grandpa's sacrifice.
Life is both short and precious. Take time for reflection! And remember to enjoy yourselves!