Enough

Life is a strange thing sometimes. It goes by in the blink of an eye, and it never seems to give enough pause or rest for people to ask the important questions.

Am I happy?

Am I doing the things I want to do?

Am I the person I want[ed] to be?

Usually, the answers to these questions come in the form of stattaco-note outbursts, sandwitched between moments of high stress, anxiety or everyday chaos. Just as quickly as somebody realizes they feel a certain way, the moment of clarity passes and it’s time to do the next ‘thing’; pay another bill. Work another shift. Take another call. Change another diaper. Do another load of dishes.

I’ll admit, I often get caught up in the manic-reactive nature of life; tackling my to-do lists with a wave of panic rather than calm, doing chores that should have been done a day (or two) prior, and feeling as if I’m perpetually chasing my tail to make my life inch forward.

One thing I noticed last year was that a big contributing factor to my own sense of manic-reactivity was the amount of time I spent on my phone. One little screen occupies 100% of the attention span, while completely blocking out the rest of the actual world around. Television programming in the 80’s and 90’s was filled with 5-7 minutes of commercial breaks between the ‘programming’.

Nowadays, 5-7 minutes of anything seems like a marathon stretch. Why? Because advertising has reskinned itself, while increasing the amount of exposure people have to it. If television programs contained 12-18% advertising content, social media platforms now contain between 20-30% of advertising content, neatly spliced between ‘actual’ content.

Think about that for a minute (or a 15-second video spot). Advertising has nearly doubled, while the duration of ads has been cut by at least 50-75%.

Let that sink in for a 15 second clip.

There are some things in life that can’t be rushed. For example, it still takes about the same amount of time to do the laundry, change a diaper, fill up your gas tank or take a shower. When the brain has been trained to consume content/media faster/quicker/shorter, these everyday tasks now feel substantially worse than they did in the past, and that matters. That matters a lot.

There are very few well-read individauls these days. In that, I mean that there are very few people who read a lot of books. In no way is this a position of support for him, but Charlie Kirk was one of the last people I’ve seen in the last decade that positioned himself as a well-read individual. Others might include Scott Adams or Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Why does reading books matter? For one, it slows down your mind because it forces you to focus on one thing at that moment; the book. Additionally, it gives the medium (not the platform) for an idea to be properly fleshed out, explained and digested – mentally.

One of my childhood friends studied to be a nutritionist, and has built a solid career providing others with diet plans that effectively combat or defeat issues related to diabetes. It tooks years for this individual to gain the certification, knowledge and credentials to effectively practice her craft. In today’s culture, anti-study-mentality believes that a 90-second reel on Instagram or TikTok provides enough of a baseline to be well-researched on any given topic.

Good things take time. Just like there isn’t a quick and effective 3-week course to master the art of being a successful ‘anything’, it takes time, reflection and observation to live a life that’s of good quality and satisfactory to the one living it.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been taking daily walks in my neighborhood. I live a short distance from Lake Lewisville and am walking distance to a ‘landmark spot’ where non-residents frequent on a regular basis.

Have you ever visited a place and thought “how cool would it be to live in this place/neighborhood?” or perhaps “I’d love to have this destination in my backyard”?

Well, I live in a place like that, and I’m finally starting to take advantage of it on a daily basis, and I’ve discovered that taking the same walk each day doesn’t get old. Rather, it seems to compound on itself and get better with every single walk.

Why? Because there’s a level of uncertainty that accompanies every walk. Each time, I never know if ‘dog’ will be there to greet Atlas; a large golden retiever (I think) that often runs to the edge of his fence to greet Atlas as he calls out “Dog! Dog! Dog!”

As we walk by the ‘forest’, there’s another level of uncertainty – will there be coyotes? The small element of danger is enough to keep me on my toes and on full alert because I don’t want Atlas or Rocky to encounter any threats. It’s also the reason I carry my gun on every walk. It’s this mix of uncertainty, paired with the calming presence of nature and the elements that gives me a routine sense of peace as I take these walks, often with Atlas and his Mom – with Rocky happily joining the party.

During these walks, I often think about the questions I started this blog with.

“Am I happy?”

“Am I doing the things I want to be doing?”

“Am I the person I want[ed] to be?

In the stillness of nature and the presence of good company, I now find my answer(s) to the questions.

Yes.