I asked myself this question when I was driving to meet a friend last night. I was waiting at a stop light with the windows down when the most consuming, delicious smell wafted my way. I looked around to see where it might be coming from and figured it must have been one of the Thai restaurants nearby.
It then occurred to me that, as the sun was setting and people were getting ready to go out for their dinner meals, these people who were working at this restaurant do this every evening- this is their routine. EVERY day they spend the time to prepare the SAME ingredients that go into making the SAME meals.
It was then that I realized how much I had gotten caught up in my own life. Of course, I write this to you from Los Angeles where I have always felt a great busy bee energy, but in a lot of respects no matter where you live, in this day and age it’s all about the ”hustle”, the “grind”.
There is so much emphasis put on what life-changing project you are working on at the moment and at the same time which one is already lined up next-if not being superhuman and completing more than one simultaneously! And in doing so, you lose sight of the life that continues around you. You forget that you’re not alone. You only see YOUR path that lies ahead. You don’t realize that, as humans, we move more as a caravan. For me to have experienced the moment of “stopping” last night, mind you only due in part to actually HAVING to stop because of traffic (lol), I saw, felt and smelled the world around me. People were going along with the routines that they had created for themselves every moment of every day. And as easy as it is to become self-absorbed during your routine and most days feel the same, we have to maintain awareness for all the beautiful little things that are unique to the day that come our way.
A girlfriend of mine mentioned to me how she felt there was so “little time to do all the things [she] wanted” in a day- it seems to fly by so fast, we don’t accomplish enough and then the new day quickly comes upon us. But I say, let’s find the joy in our day of seconds, minutes, and hours and give appreciation for what we have in our lives and the opportunities that present themselves.
We should look for those moments to simply ‘stop’ and be present in admiration of ourselves and the wonderful world around us.
-”No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.”
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Mena is a rad actress. Follow her on twitter here.
