“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”  –  Socrates

“Hope is the expectation that something outside of ourselves, or someone external, is going to come to our rescue and we will live happily ever after.”  –  Dr. Robert Anthony

Well it has been a good week.  Nice to be back from vacation.  Very nice indeed.  Northern Colorado is a great place to live, to call home.  And that is a very good thing to say.  I realize that I am lucky to be able to live in a place like this.  And after this last vacation, I have a new appreciation for it.  Things are not always “greener” on the other side as the old saying goes.

Before going on vacation, I came across this quote by Seth Godin and it really hit home.  When Janet and I were planning our road trip there was part of me that did not want to leave or to take the time away from what I was already doing.  So, this quote got me to thinking.  Have I created a life that I don’t need to escape from?  Is my life situation so good that it is like being on vacation?  Good questions!

So I asked and what did I find??  I came to the conclusion that my life is closer to this ideal of Seth’s than I realized.  It is not perfect by no means but it is close.  And I really don’t have a firm idea of how I got here?  That is the crazy part.  I feel like I am in the song from the Talking Heads: “Once in a Lifetime” asking myself “How did I get here.”  LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8

I can tell you that my life has not always felt this way.  There was a time that the feeling for the need to escape was very real.  Palpable  in fact.  It has only been in the last couple of years, in reflection, that this craving has subsided….  Maybe it was the keeping of a journal or the practice of meditation or a combination of both??  I don’t know.   But I have come to the realization that  we all should ask ourselves these questions.   What is the famous quote by Plato or Socrates:  “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

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Doing a “google” search of vacation images, it was not hard to come up with many that had to do with escaping your current life, even if it was only for a moment….  And until till I came across Seth’s quote I probably would not have thought anything about it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that travel is great, even essential to personal growth and development.  To see and be with family.  To experience sounds and sensations that are new and foreign.   So, I encourage you to take that vacation.  To fully enjoy your time away.

But when you get back, ask yourself are you escaping from something?  What is it?  How could you change things so this might not be the case in the future?  It makes me wonder if we as employers and employees have created a work  environment, a culture, a way of life that is much more toxic than we realize.  That it became normal to “need” that escape?  And is it just part of the “Capitalistic – Consumeristic Society” that we live in.  Has it gotten totally out of control?  Always have to have something new?  Go someplace different?  Spend, spend, spend and more spending…To keep up with the proverbial “Jones” so to speak?

The above one by Budge Travel looks good on the surface but in a sneaky sort of way.  “Say, we are not escaping??  What are you talking about??  Just don’t let life escape you!!  You would not want to miss out!!!”  Wow…  Now that is some marketing!!

So, in this short blog I hope that I have spurred you to ask those questions and to look for the answers.  I am not really sure what they are for me.  But I am asking myself the questions.  And I think that will make all the difference.

Well that is about it for me this week.   Have a Happy and safe Forth of July and I will see you next week.