Wednesday, August 6, 2008

THE LUXURY OF TIME

In our rat race life in Silicon Valley we never had enough time. From early morning breakfasts about social web sites that would change how people lived, to luncheons reviewing investment tools to create Micro mutual funds, to late night meetings at Starbucks with telecommunications engineers heading to China, it was non-stop every day. It all seemed so earth shattering and important at the time.

Now that we live less than 30 miles from a continuously erupting Volcano, we have a new understanding of what an earth shattering event could be. Living on the slopes under the exploding Kilauea, we have been able to slow down our life and enjoy napping and reading and thinking about the issues of the day.

On the golf course yesterday, our golf partner talked about the few decades he has left and what he wanted to put into that remaining time. We thought about that and came to the conclusion that the thing we want to put in our remaining decades is not a thing at all, but the luxury of time to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us and live life simply at a slow pace.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

all the rat race does is make those running in it believe that what they are doing is much more important than it really is and gets them to the finish line faster ... death is not a finish line that i wish to be rushing toward ...

having lived four years in puerto rico in my childhood, getting out of california and back to the slower pace of island life was always a goal ... when my wife and me came to hilo for the first time in 1988 we knew we had found the slower life we craved ...

hilo reminds all of us that life is to be enjoyed, slowly not devoured like competitors in an eating contest woofing down their hot dogs.