You can still enjoy life even if you are busy. You can even take time out to smell a flower or two with full presence of mind. All you have to do is do it. Sure, that is the easy part of the article to read and get. But, if we treat life as just another quick stop until we get off the train at death, or take it too much for granted and want to miss all the "bad parts", then we genuinely miss the point of life. The point of existence is growth, experiences and learning, and when we look back if we did not do any of this growth, experience and learning we will suffer the ultimate loss: We skipped over understanding it all.
Let me explain the above a little clearer: Napoleon Hill once wrote about a boy in one of his essays that was born into wealth and privilege and was so wealthy that he had a $40,000 golden crib given to him as if the child was made of something superior to us all. The child skipped all the bad parts of life, never had to work a day in their lives until the child died when he was ten years old from getting hit by an automobile while wandering out into the street. What I am saying is similar to the old Christian Biblical quote in plain English: "To them that have, more will be given. To them that have not, what little they have will be taken away." Thinking about that fact, those that genuinely "have not" skip the necessary experience to genuinely "have" really. To quote the Upanishads in plain English also, "they do not know the good that is under their feet, so they miss the bad and ultimately the good too." Nothing is worse than missing out on reality, especially when you can genuinely learn something from it that is valuable.
To be too mindlessly busy sometimes, then, is the worst thing in the universe. To just mark time and invest in what you are doing wanting to skip it is a liability. Mindfulness is always an asset. I do not only mean attention in the right places, I mean gaining the understanding to do things in the right way and time even if you have to go through experiences that are bad or even pretty good but with a few "bad points". Understanding is gained through the full experience, not skipping what you do not like. Understanding is what you need and what you want. That is the reality that means anything, anyhow. As the Greek Philosopher Socrates said, "with all you're getting, get understanding!" Genuine understanding is the full gamut of knowledge consisting of what we need, and may not like or like and what we want and definitely like. My point is, it all must be experienced for what it is with total patience, understanding and tolerance to fully get the lesson genuinely. Going through the motions never works in that sense. We must experience and understand.
My name is Joshua Clayton, I am a freelance writer based in Inglewood, California. I also write under a few pen-names and aliases, but Joshua Clayton is my real name, and I write by that for the most part now. I am a philosophical writer and objective thinker and honest action taker. I also work at a senior center in Gardena, California as my day job, among other things, but primarily I am a writer.
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