July 2012

Summer is here! Time for sleeping in, walking barefoot on the sand and eating ice cream. Time for sparklers, hanging out with friends and barbequing. Time to relax! Summer is traditionally seen as the time of the year that everything slows down, and we get to take it easy. Unfortunately in today’s hectic world, those imagines often are more of fantasies than reality.

Okay, maybe you can no longer take three months off and eat watermelons and have seed spitting contests with your friends. But it is still a good idea to slow down. Try, just try, to not overschedule yourself. You do not need to be doing something every minute of the day. After work, instead of rushing to the gym, then a meeting, then trying to catch up with friends, go to the beach. Take a walk along the shore. Take the time to notice, really notice, where you are and what is going on. Take the time to smell the salt water. Watch the children laughing. Maybe even enjoy the fact that you are getting sandy. If we can slow down, be in the moment, then time slows down, too. We will actually know how we spent our time, rather than at the end of the day, fall into bed, without a clue as to what we did but are exhausted from whatever it was. And haven’t enjoyed a bit of it.

Life passes us too quickly as it is; we do not need to speed that process up any more. It is summer. It is time to slow down. Better slow down now, before the summer is over!