Nature around us in November days invite us to slow down, while the commercial world invites to wind up, get busier, plan, shop, bake, and prepare for Christmas. We find so many things to do. Then ‘Black Friday” has been added to the frenzy in recent years.
We are living in contradiction to the natural world, yet the world around us demands that we engage with the busyness. We are surrounded by advertisements and offers not to be missed, things that ‘must’ be done to be a part of the festive spirit.
So how, while surrounded by all these influences, do you find balance. Henry David Thoreau reminds us of the grounding impact of nature…
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life
Thoreau refers to the inner fulfilment that we seek, and need to connect with, to satisfy our soul purpose.
In Victor J. Stretcher’s Life on Purpose –how living for what matters most changes everything, he offers some sobering thoughts and challenging questions. He asks:
Are you really living for what matters most?
Do you even remember any more what matters most?
In the middle of our everyday busy lives, sometimes what matters most gets lost in the fray. We loose sight of what we consider most important.
Aristotle concluded that the ultimate purpose of human activity is happiness. He also thought that, with a few exceptions, we decide what we become. That is a sobering thought – what ever each one of us has become, we have in some way decided that is what we will be.
David Whyte in his poem Sometimes requests us
to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it.
Today, have you time to stop what you are doing, go for a walk or just sit and pause and notice what you are doing and what you are becoming while doing it?