There are days I think I have barely blinked and a decade has passed. But, on a good day, when I don't feel rushed or behind schedule, I feel like I am right where I am supposed to be. It's hard to get more good days with all the demands that we place, or allow to be placed, upon ourselves. I feel tied to my cell phone like a ball-and-chain sometimes, but I can't imagine not having it to look up contacts, send a quick note, or check my calendar.
There's one thing that helps me feel connected, maybe a little more grounded. It sounds cliche` but, stop and smell the roses. I stop to admire a particularly beautiful fall leaf, a little pool of water gathered in it's curvature by a sudden rain storm. I admire the work ethic of a robust squirrel burying an acorn. He digs furiously, places in the acorn, and stamps down the earth over it's top to make sure it is compact, then even takes time to push the grass back into place. I know intellectually that squirrels are driven by a comical genetic drive that will urge them to bury any spherical object, even if no soft substrate is present in which to dig. They will take a golf ball into the corner of a cage, and mimic the real-world actions I just described. But, that doesn't make me admire him any less. I chuckle and tell him, "Now, remember where you put that."
People may think I'm crazy talking to squirrels, but I think it's better than just talking to myself or rambling obnoxiously on a cell phone mysteriously cloaked by use of bluetooth. I want to watch that squirrel for a second or two. I want to enjoy the smell of the ground soaking up a rainstorm. I want to make sure that I feel my sense of time in space by relating to something that is non-technological and then, maybe, time won't fly quite so fast.
Then again, my baby who seems like she should still be a baby is running, dancing, making up stories to entertain me. So, it will be a constant battle. Anyone else feeling the urge to, "dream the impossible dream?"
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