Is this it?

Have you ever stopped and asked yourself - "Is this it?"  Have you wondered is there more to life than the daily grind?  More than the 9-5 slog and working all the hours you have just to get more stuff?  When is the last time you stopped to smell the flowers?  or gaze into the sky? or the ocean?

Life seems to be one headlong rush in the "rat race".  There's another thought - If it really is a rat race, and you win - What's the prize?  Is there a prize?  or will you just be left wondering "Is that it?"

In almost every career nowadays there's a constant need to continually update your skill set, evaluate your career path and keep yourself up to date with the latest developments in your chosen field.  You are expected to continually improve yourself as an employee / partner / associate - whatever your position is.  If you take time off due to illness, you are expected to "catch up"when you return - not just on the work that's been left undone - but on the changes in the company / personnel / developments in your industry.

Isn't it funny then that we don't oblige ourselves to keep ourselves up to date in our own lives?  When is the last time you were enlisted in a half day seminar in self-care, or re-evaluating your life goals.  Is what you're doing now what you dreamed of doing when you were a teenager?  Back in your schooldays did you dream that you'd be doing exactly what you're doing now?

Have all the dreams and hopes you left school with been fulfilled?  Is your life full to overflowing with precious moments and memories that bring you joy?  When you get up out of bed every day, are you delighted to be alive?  Do you look forward to each new day?  Are you disappointed that the days are ending when bed-time comes around? Or are you stuck on the treadmill of eveyday hum drum life like most of the world's population?

So many people go through the drudge of every day, almost on automatic pilot.  They function - not live.  Each day bleeds into the next in a monotonous cycle of work - home - sleep - work  etc.  We go to our jobs because we have to feed he family, pay the mortgage and exist on this little blue planet we call home.  It is a rare moment when we stop and ask ourselves why we're doing it. 

Maybe this pause fom the madness that we're calling a recession will give us room to think.  With more people being let go, and jobs and finances dwindling, maybe we'll re-evaluate if we really need all these "things".  Perhaps instead of focussing on the new car we were planning, or the new extension, or the boob job or whatever it is that is driving us, we'll focus on the people in our lives.  You know them - those ones who get up in the morning and leave the house with you. The ones who share meals with you and who snuggle up behind you on the cold winter evenings.

It's a perfect opportunity to reconnect with the important people in our lives.  Visit your parents, relatives and friends.  Not because they're having a party on their new deck and you want to show off your latest fashions, or because they haven't seen your new car yet, but because youe haven't seen them in a while.  Because it's nice to just sit and have a cup of tea with a friend you haven't seen in a while.  Go for a walk with your partner on the beach or in the mountains.  Reconnect with nature.  Spend some time playing with your children - not on the playstation or X-box, but outside, with a ball or a bike.  Look around you at the beauty we live in and remember how easy it is to forget about all the natural beauty we have.

There's on old Cree Indian prophesy that says:

"Only after the last tree has been cut down…

the last river has been poisoned…

the last fish caught,

only then will you find

that money cannot be eaten."