When you read this, I will be heading back to Price after another seven day river trip through Desolation Canyon on the Green River. Hopefully I will be refreshed and recharged after a week away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
With technology these days, it becomes more and more difficult just to unplug and contemplate life for a while. I am glad to get the opportunity to do just that.
However, I won’t have been sitting around and doing nothing. I have volunteered to row a boat for an archaeology trip down the river. I will have had long days and a chance to see things I may never gotten to see otherwise.
As an artist, I am also always working when I am out, finding new material to paint. I hope to bring back at least one finished painting from the trip.
And I will help document the work of the archaeologist’s and hopefully many of you can read about it in a later issue.
But there are many hours of time floating down the river to savor the art of just being. I don’t do it enough. Another birthday has passed, another year of living that I squandered worrying about schedules, kids, problems and laundry.
Here is another summer half over and I haven’t yet spent one morning sitting out on my deck, sipping coffee. I told myself in December I would do it every morning once it got warm again.
Nope, I gulp down a cup at 5 a.m. and rush out to walk the dog, come home to roust the kids, head them off to camp, hit the grocery store, drop into the Sun Advocate to check in and return home. Then I clean the house, write my articles for the paper, paint for a while, pick up the kids, make dinner, go shoot some baseball photos, come back home for a bit of TV and crash into bed.
Now I’m tired just thinking about it.
I read a cartoon today where a rat was writing obituaries and he said he wrote one for a guy that he thought hadn’t done much with his life. It said “He lived, he died and we hardly cried.” He was proud that it at least rhymed.
Now I am not getting all maudlin or anything, I thought it was funny.
But taking a minute to just slow down and reflect on my life reminds me that I have accomplished some pretty good things and clean laundry or an organized silverware drawer should never be the top priority in my list for the day.
So I hope you all can find a minute, an hour or even longer to savor life. You never get those minutes back. Don’t wait to find time-its already there for the taking and was never lost.
It’s up to you to re prioritize it for your own use.
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