Enjoy a Break
Time passes by so quickly, as though digital timekeeping has sped up the Earth’s rotation. Our routine is set at exact times. Things get done like clockwork. And we are slaves to our routine, from the moment we wake up to the time we close our eyes.
There’s nothing natural about our daily grind. It’s a monotony that’s quite out of sync with the beauty that surrounds us but which we ignore. We’re simply doing things for reasons that appeal to the vanity of our species. Maybe it’s time to reconnect with the childhood joys you’ve forgotten.
You don’t have to leave everything behind, of course. Take it easy and gradually reinvent your way of seeing things. You need to focus on the little details that bring out the whole picture, like examining each amazing fractal in the Julia Set, each constellation in the night sky, or, closer to home, each dear photograph in the album you’ve kept.
Focus is what we all need, but it doesn’t always have to do with work. Giving yourself a little time in the middle of a busy day won’t hurt. It revitalizes your senses, in fact. A one-minute introspective focus on the beauty of your surrounding at lunch break may change the way you appreciate life in the long run.
It can be your one minute of simplification, of self-discovery through the appreciation of little things around you: the way the flowers are arranged, the combination of their colors; how light is reflected by the leaves of grass and trees and the river; the flutter of pigeons at the park; someone whistling a happy tune; an old couple holding hands.
Let it be an unhurried, un-harried, unspoiled one-minute habit of seeing things in a blissful light. It’s a treat not just for your senses but the soul as well. And through it you may understand yourself better.
It’s a good start to realize that life can be even more beautiful if we could spend some time to enjoy it. Not the high life but a simple one, which carries no price tag, as the best things in life, a poet declared, can’t be had with a swipe of your plastic.
