The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forget that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding theings together they lost the sense of surprise, and surprise is the secret of joy.--G.K. Chesterton.
Sometimes it seems impossible to NOT crowd things together. We are champion multi-taskers, priding ourselves on doing two or three or even four things at once. I wonder what kind of effort I give my activities when I am so intent on accomplishing them that I fail to enjoy them or think about the meaning behind them.
It is easy to infect our children with this same frenzy of busy-ness. When my children were young, we were involved with gymnastics, music lessons, Cub Scouts, Little League football, Girl Scouts, and a host of other things. They were all good things, worthwhile things. But they were things. I look back and wonder if the children, indeed, the whole family, might have been happier and more content if we'd limited the activities and spent more time simply being.
This I know for sure: a meaningful life is one filled with more thought and less activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment