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Where did the summer go? Here in the Pacific
Northwest, the cold wet days of winter held on until Mid-July. We enjoyed a few warm weeks
of glorious summer weather and mere days of clear, sunny, blue skies. And then, the
summer’s over. The days are starting to cool, the vine maple and sumac has started to
turn color, and the newspapers are full of "Back to School"
advertisements. |
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| The Pacific Northwest is a very good teacher. You learn to take
advantage of every sun filled day and to never take good weather for granted. Or, anything
else for that matter. Or do we? I’m amazed at how much is taken for
granted in the frenzied pace of today’s lifestyles. As people, we have a tendancy
toward overindulgence in nearly all things. We live in the philosophy of “If a little
is good, then a lot is better”. Our approach to any problem is that “to fix it,
we must add something”. While this may be a great philosophy if you are selling
computer software, it’s a lousy approach to living a happy, uncluttered life. |
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We surround ourselves with stuff that we rarely
use, and work more to pay for it. We attempt more activities than we could ever
accomplish, then feel inadequate. We eat too much, becoming overweight, then join a health
club to lose the weight, which takes more time out of our day, so we eat more fast food
because we don’t have time to cook, which results in even more calories. And on it
goes....
As we rush through the chaos of the life we have created,
we are frantic, tired, out of time and we are not having any fun. We cry with millions of
others, “There isn’t any time for me, I want to simplify my life!” But,
how? We cannot eliminate all of our obligations and commitments. But, we can take charge
of them. |
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