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Work-Life Balance

Do you take the time?

By July 6, 2017February 4th, 2021No Comments

Do you take the time to enjoy the small things in life?

So here’s the thing, it’s 10:45 on Canada Day (July 1st) and we leave the restaurant we are having dinner at hoping our cabbie has arrived, only to be treated instead to the start of a fireworks display.

Instead, we stop, I jump up on the grass, find a spot to sit and simply take it in.  Maggie, being slightly more proper than I am, saunters down to the edge of the garden and stands there to watch the display. Either way, we take in a spectacular 10-minute show of fireworks to the soundtrack I have playing (Eric Clapton of course!).

A trio of things I noted outside of the fact that the fireworks themselves were amazing.

take the time to watch some Fireworks

Firework Festival photo created by jcomp – www.freepik.com

1

People are so busy they just don't take the time to take in fleeting moments.

It's Saturday night in a fleeting and tiny Quebec town and yet people still have places to go and things to do. -- No judgment here, but when did it get so busy that we couldn't just simply stop? .... and look and enjoy the fireworks display?
2

If it's not in front of my face I don't care -- I'd like to disprove this one but I just cannot.

The fact is, none of the fireworks were an emergency, thus no one had to devote time, resources or attention to them. When did we move from a society that could stop when we wanted to, to a society that only stops when it has to? Much like a child who you give attention to because they repeatedly call out "Mom, mom, mom, mom." Until you are exasperated. We as a society have moved to a point where we only look up if something is really vying for our attention.
3

The simplest / easy going -- well they have it right.

Our cabbie arrived half way through the show. Did he insist we get in the car? No, he jumped out to watch it. The fact is, we can learn a lot of things from each other's methods of operation.

Do you know what the most important thing I learned was? Take it easy, relax, enjoy yourself. What's the rush -- Vincent was in no rush to push us along to get us back to our hotel, he wanted to take the time to watch the display as well and enjoy that quick 10-minute show. And you know what? It was worth taking the time. It was worth it to take a breath, to press pause and to just be present before we let the world come rushing back in to take over.

So my question to you is, in this busy world where we are so connected we’ve lost intimate connections with one another, are you so busy you can’t take the time to smell the roses? Or in this case, watch the fireworks? And if so, how’s it working out for you? Do you desire to change that?

Love to hear your opinion.

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