It's Time

We live in a society that lends itself to isolation. Ironically, it is also the age of effortless communication. Ipods, computers, internet, video games, movies, television, cell phones...you name it. Walk through an airport and try to find someone who is not occupied with some kind of communicative device. However, walk into the home of any American citizen and see how much authentic, real-time communication is actually taking place. Slowly, and yet not so slowly, we are trading face to face relationship for bits and pieces of the real thing. And it is not fulfilling.

I look around and I see tired people...working, working, working...and for what? To come home and not enjoy what life was really meant to be. I know many nights I come home late from work, pop in a healthy choice meal, sit in front of the computer checking emails and blogs and that is only interaction I will have with anyone at all. Once in awhile, I enjoy such an evening...okay at least once a week I enjoy such an evening...but night after night, it begins to wear on me. And I know it wears on others. Where is the life we were meant to live????

Were we meant to earn a paycheck and then let the rest of life pass us by? What is the point of that paycheck? What is the point of work? Are we not also meant to make a mark on this world? Are we not also meant to find friendship and love and purpose?

There are two sides to every story...yes, there are successful people my age, running after their dreams soaking up life for all it is worth. But what about those who are lost in the cycle of practicality? I have grown up leaning on the practical answers....I need to live well, therefore, I need an education, I need a stable job, I need a house, 2.5 children, 1.2 pets, etc., etc. So we build our lives based on expectation. We are expected to perform and therefore we do. Forget the dreams way deep down in our hearts. Forget the passion that rises when we see the things in front of us that we most long for. Forget relationships in the face of paperwork and deadlines. And the more we push aside what matters deep down in the heart of us, the more we forget what was important in the first place. The matters of our hearts become buried deep. And we begin to survive on the surface...just get by, just get to the next place, just make it through the day, just reach for that small moment of relief of rest. And before we know it...we are sleeping through the best days of our lives.

We make empty promises at best and then fail time and time again to get to "that place" we long to be. What are we really working to obtain?

I took an online stress test today. It told me that I could have severe problems within the next 2 years if I didn't find a proper way to deal with the stress. Well, I don't believe that I will have problems. I do believe the stress levels will decrease. However, I know that I don't experience half of what others go through. Imagine, this generation, working, working, working....straining, striving, and for what? What are we working so hard for? What is it we really want? Where do we really want to be? Who do we really want to be with?

Can we start asking the real questions here? Who do we love? How we can we love them better? Let's start there. And because we love, how will we live? What changes do we long to see in the world? How can we help bring about those changes? These are the real questions.
These are the reasons that we are alive. It has nothing to do with the accumulation of money and possessions. It has nothing to do with saving face in lieu of society's expectations.

In 20 years will you look back and find that most of your memories are connected to digital equipment? Will you look back and see the lost opportunities for looking into another person's eyes and having a real conversation? Will you look back and find that you took the time for friends and family when it mattered most...and even when it mattered just a little? And what about time for strangers? They cross our paths for a reason...who knows what reason that may be?

It's time to wake up. It's time to come out of this cloud that hovers over our busy lives. It's time to see what we are really meant to be. It's time to change. It's time to do something different, something out of the ordinary. It's time to break the mold. It's time to take a walk in the middle of the day, breath in the fresh air, and ask, "what's next?" It's time to step out of the isolation, look into someone else's eyes, reach out for a hand to hold, run ahead of the things that would hold us behind...and press on towards that which calls us heavenward.

It's time.