Life is not a story about us; it is about telling us a story. I think this is the only way to truly enjoy life, and do so selflessly. All we must do is learn to listen to the stories that are being told by things around us; things that go unnoticed for the most part.

Finding amazement in the blessings of life, in the creativity and beauty in nature, in the freshness of the air, blazing a trail in the wild, enjoying the kindness of humanity, and valuing the gifts in people around us are often falsely labeled as airy-fairy,' sappy, earthy, or unrealistic. It seems to me that it has been so long since this kind of lifestyle has been valued that we have created a new norm, albeit a false one.

Value tends to be placed on one's busy-ness and time off' makes us out to be either lazy or so rich we can afford to have it. In fact, some prefer to complain about a lack of time off rather than take the time off they actually deserve.

For some reason, people also enjoy complaining about their long commute to work through noisy, polluted mazes of concrete. And ironically, only cars and other vehicles are allowed on major highways. To think we have created spaces where the only legal mode of transportation is in a motor vehicle; it is quite absurd, really. If someone wanted to walk and enjoy the air, polluted or not, they would likely get a ticket.

What seems unrealistic to me is spending 3 hours a day or 21 hours a week, or 1092 hours a year sitting behind a wheel in rush-hour traffic.

Dinner conversations revolve around time spent in a 6x6 foot cubicle on the eighteenth storey. Weekends are considered holidays' when there is time enough to go to a park or have a barbeque in the backyard. Otherwise, fulfillment in life is sought from the 9-5 grind, the nightly commitments, meetings, work after work, and plaguing to-do lists.

There is a perception that these things have to be done; these things have to be gotten through' in order for us to have the time, the money, the means of enjoying the outdoors and the many blessings in life. But is this any more realistic than the simplified life, the life that notices that the story is not about us and what we do? Can't we live simply and still make a living? It might be hard, and it might require some creativity, but I think it can still be done in a cubicle or wherever you might spend the majority of your time.

What I mean to say is that, in general, we live so far away from the world that we were meant

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