Sunday, January 2, 2011

Finding Purpose

I have mentioned on my Other Blog what my New Year Resolution might be, what I might blog about this year. In a round about way I am after the discussion, at least with myself, but I hope you join me, about perfection and knowing what you want out of life. When is enough, enough? and what to do when our own goals clash with what we want? These are not necessarily belief systems, nothing that deep. Just observations, what I see along the way. We can laugh along the way, especially if we get frightened, get lost, take a wrong turn somewhere. The key to all this will be to not take it all too seriously. What is at stake of course is our life and the very planet we live on. We are seven BILLION strong and eating up our resources like ameba's in a

primeval soup! God has given us everything and we just want more! We act as though the ticket to Heaven is tallied on a bank sheet and the path to Happiness is strewn with used appliances and, well, Things!
Time is related to this. We are always in a hurry. Time itself has become a "thing," an empty space to be filled up. Even on a vacation we set up an itinerary, must be here, must be there.
We can buy time and waste time and we use it quickly, hurrying to the end. What we don't have in our vocabulary is "relax time". I mean to enjoy doing nothing. To just take a deep breath and allow everything to be. If we could find five minutes for this we would get right back to business,
thinking deep in our hearts that we have "wasted time". This is in our DNA too. We somehow feel there is a purpose to all this and we must work hard to discover what it is. It is irony taken to the extreme. What if our purpose is simply appreciation?

6 comments:

  1. Appreciation? In this time and place? Hardly.. where this is all going is just beyond me, it's swirling around and making me dizzy.
    Everyone is climbing that hill, with those things stuck in their ears, talking into space. then when they get there they want to go further, get more..
    For me, walking into one of those electronic supermarkets is like being on another planet. I understand telephones, cameras, computers (that just came into my life 2 years ago) but whats all that other foreign paraphenelia? and you Jerry, with your 40 year old rotary dial phone, I know you are a dinasour..!
    What happened to lets just sit and talk or look up at the sky.? When I walk, I hardly ever look straight ahead, I look up at the sky and trees or I look down on the ground.. where you can still find feathers, rocks, birds nest..but no one is interested in those little amazing! things.
    Yes, lets take the time to appreciate what we have and thats way too much already. It doesn't have to get any better than this... for me, I'm happy, but can I still get that Netbook?

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  2. I asked for one thing during the holidays, more time. I didn't bother to take the time to realize I'd already been given the gift I just hadn't taken the time to notice.

    Time is a funny thing. Appreciation is something we take for granted. All of it should be recognized. I have recently been very appreciative of all the things God has done in my life, though I must say that I lose sight sometimes I always gain it back.

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  4. You make an interesting point and I think you are onto something here.

    I think if people were to ask their selves what the most peaceful and memorable moments of their lives were, it wouldn't be the things they collected or the hours they worked to afford them. Or worrying about how many hours they had in a day to accomplish all their goals. I think what would come to mind would be moments of appreciation.

    A piece of art they once saw that moved them. A book that spoke to them. Holding hands with someone they love. Admiring a beautiful sunset. Seeing the first smile on their child's face, etc. etc. etc.

    Our greatest obstacle is letting go of the clutter long enough to see the meaning.

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  5. StonePost, interestingly I have the 'time' but lack the motivation, which I hope is nothing but a transition.
    Tomorrow I see a new oncologist and I hope he has some 'answers' to this lethargy/fatigue which plagues me these days. I sleep, sleep and sleep some more.
    Let me 'BE'

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  6. Relax! Yes! Odd, but I was sitting with my mom yesterday, just sitting; the two of us just contemplating, and I said "look at me, I've done nothing today". "Ah", she said, "but you have you've thought about your painting while sitting".
    Perhaps she was right, but I really felt yesterday that I let time pass me by with no accomplishment for the day. And, quite frankly, I felt guilty, as though I had committed some sort of crime.

    I watch her and she nods off so frequently during the day. This is so new to me, to see my mother just sit and nod off. She has always been a tornado of energy, always doing and being and it is just the past year she seems to have stopped. I am concerned for her and her lack of desire to "do something", anything. I am also concerned that maybe in another twenty years I may be doing the same.

    My relaxation comes when I am in the sand dunes or walking the ocean shore; other than that I feel I must put whatever time I am alloted to good use.

    Maybe 'relaxing' is simply doing what one enjoys whether it's hard labour, sitting still or wallowing in nature's bounty.

    Meanwhile, I had better get moving and make this a 'productive day' with something concrete to show for having walked this way today.

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