Are you the white rabbit?
Do you want a slice of life or the whole thing? What about other people, do you just want a piece of them, or do you want the whole thing? How about that cake, or that apple? Why do we take pieces of life when we are given the whole thing?
I am noticing the longer I blog, that there are 2 kinds of people, there are those who are really interested and feel the article and it’s author, or there are those who just skim to say they read it. Why does it seem that people just want to skim through life? They always seem busy and they can’t waste any more time. These people (and I was one of them) remind me of the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland.
These people are always scampering around proclaiming with their actions how late they are. How they don’t have time for this, or don’t have time for that, why do our lives have to be in overdrive all the time? Why can’t we slow down and try to take in the entire moment, instead of just skimming through it trying to get to some point in the future that we can never reach?
I understand that life happens, I never get to comment or read all of the blogs that I really want to read, but when I do, I want to be fully engaged in them, to feel what the author is trying to say instead of skimming and missing the point completely.
Have you ever noticed that when people don’t agree on something, that one or both of them are only half listening to the other person, which I believe is the real cause of misunderstandings? I have, I do this myself from time to time, but the first step to change is knowing there is a problem.
When I go out into nature, I try to take in all its beauty, not just what I want to see. I need to look at the dead carcass of an animal, as well as the leaves changing color. Nature is not composed of only the pieces we want to see, and neither is our lives, they are made up of many different experiences and situations that need to be seen in their totality.
Can we do this? Can we as humans learn to look at all of life instead of skimming, especially when we have been doing it for so long? That is the beauty of being human, we can do whatever we set our minds to.
I challenge you to pick one day and try to slow it down as much as possible. Try to actually hear and see all that is going on or being said around you, instead of hurrying to a set moment in the future.
Mimic Nature 
This is part of the reason I got so interested in permaculture. Part of permaculture, as you may know, is taking advantage of every part of something. People go out and get chickens and eat the eggs. They don’t realize how much more the chickens could be part of their home. Chickens can provide fertilizer, scratch up garden beds, even heat a greenhouse! There is so much more to everything than people tend to see. I want more out of my life than just the basics that everyone sees. I want to get everything out of the human experience as I possibly can. And I want to get everything I can from all the things I have. I know I may be jumping around and not totally replying to what you may have intended, but this is what your post made me think about. I love the idea of not just skimming but diving in to the things you do and getting everything out of them. I think this will make your life feel fuller in so many ways. Sometimes I need a reminder or a reinspiration (I know that isn’t a real word) to help keep me on track in the craziness I have created for myself. Thank you for it!
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You’re welcome nepermhome, it was just something that was on my mind, I think my next bog will be about how people feel the need to change things that are fine the way they are..thinking about that GMO potato link I posted yesterday.
Your thoughts went perfectly with the theme of the article so don’t worry, and you are totally right, we can miss a lot when it comes to nature and how multifunctional it really is.
There is a quote from a movie that says, “Live each moment as if it were on purpose”, how can we do this if we continue to skim over life? Living your life on purpose means being there in each moment.
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I have been trying to get into meditation as well. Mindfulness meditation is just meditating by being aware of everything going on around you. One of the “exercises” I have seen is to practice mindfulness day to day by just looking around and being observant of everything that is going on around you. The simplest little things that you would never notice unless you stop. It is amazing how much you take in just stopping and looking around for 5 minutes.
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Yes! It’s amazing how much more I truly see. I started with the 21 day meditations with Deepak and Oprah, this helps me to train my brain to quiet down. My biggest problem is trying to get my brain out if the way, our brains were designed to be a useful tool, not something that we allow to control us and our actions. I use meditation as a time to learn to stop the chatter within and sit quietly with my eyes closed, patiently waiting for the universe to say something 🙂 Our eyes lie to us, I want to see from within.
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I am trying to learn to quiet my brain. It is so hard to do. I am making progress though. It will make us both stronger once we get there.
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I know! It is really hard to do 🙂 but you are right, it will make us stronger once we get there.
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