Getting back to Living Life not just participating in an assembly line

When we hear the words Organic and Holistic it is often speaking of food and health.  And if you’ve read my blog you know I am all about organic food and a holistic approach to health.  But being that I am still a bit melancholy from Fathers Day (I lost my dad suddenly not too long ago), I wanted to take a different spin on the meaning of Organic and Holistic.

We are very concerned about how and what we eat and sometimes this falls out of balance with how we are living.  Yes, it is important to eat healthy food and be conscious of all the chemicals and junk we are polluting our bodies and the world with, but as human beings that are rapidly going through the motions of daily life, we can forget about living and savoring the beautiful things that life tosses at us.  We can also forget about resting in times of sickness and sharing smiles instead of screams with our ever-curious children.

When I think of my dad he was a man of great convictions that did not let his arm get twisted easily.  He stood up passionately for what he believed in.  He played hard and rested hard too!

I remember his #1 pet peeve was: If you’re sick and not well you have no business going to work.  Your place is in bed with a hot cup of tea or broth until you get better.  That way you’re letting your body rest and you’re also avoiding the possibility of getting others sick if you have something contagious.

Now I gotta say that I sit in my little office and I look across the hall at times.  I sit in my car and I look outside.  I sit in church and my eyes wander to people hurriedly bustling through hallways trying to make it on time, coughing sneezing, and feeling ill.

Some of them are miserable and usually in a not-so-good mood but they stood up that day when the teacher called their name for attendance if you know what I mean.

So they go home only to feel worse and then after a few days of mindless neglect they have a sore throat, flu, and elevated cortisol.  Now they really have to rest but they decide that it is best to take prescribed painkillers and other drugs because God forbid they miss a day of work to care for their body.

This whole time their co-workers get exposed to sickness and to a moody person, their families get the backlash and their poor bodies have no defense so the flu or cold that would take maybe 1 to 2 weeks to go away drags on for a month or more.

Why????

Again, why is it that we have a problem with stopping the turning tables and just crashing into our beds?  Who is going to die if you miss a day of work?  Corporate America will still be there when you return.  But what doesn’t stay the same is your body and the relationships you damage when you’re under stress.

What happened to the days when people went home for lunch for 2 hours during the day and children were sent home also to eat with their parents.  Now we are lucky if our poor little kids get a decent 20 minutes to scarf down their food and then we wonder why our kids are sick and stressed.

Why don’t we care about our overall well-being anymore?  What happened to our society why these values for life have drifted far away from us?

In our desire to be Y2K compliant and iPhone savvy, we have become a robot culture.  We zip through life as if we were cats with 9 replaceable lives to live.  So if one goes down the drain it’s OK because we have another one to spare.

But we don’t have 9 lives and yes our gadgets are important and our homes are important and our church or extracurricular activities are important BUT and I say a big BUT.

But what if we have all the gadgets, do all the activities, attend all the outings, buy the latest hi-tech family time robbing phone, work the 40 or 60 hrs a week and in the end we lose our soul, we lose our family or even our health???

What is the point then?

You worked really hard to achieve all the goals that other people thought you should be attaining.  You never missed work, you bought your kids anything and everything they asked for and you were always there to attend a meeting or social gathering, but now you’re on your death bed, panting for breath.

You maybe have one of your children next to you (the one that is not bitter about you ignoring him all his life to be in the office).  You manage to slur out, “Sorry son, if I could do it all over again I would have spent more time with you and your mom and brothers, I would have cared more about establishing relationships instead of buying them.  I am really sorry I hope you can forgive me, better yet I hope I will get out of this and live to change how I have been…”

Beep-beep-beep-beep, no heart rate, no moving on the monitor, dads gone, and with him are his dreams, hopes, and aspirations.

Now tell me honestly.  Do you think that is right?

I don’t, it makes me furious that we have taught our children as a fast-paced society to rush through life and win every game cause that’s what’s important.  We have taught our kids that it is important to buy the latest toy and care little about the boy or girl that drags his toy from a garbage dump because that is the place he calls home.

What is wrong with this picture?

Why don’t we care about spending time at home and baking brownies with our kids on a Tuesday because they are home feeling sick and we aren’t feeling so great ourselves?  Now of course in our house, it’s more like raw superfood brownies but you get the point!

Why is it a punishable crime to offer to pray for someone in a public place when you see they are hurting and you may not know them but can see there is pain on their face?

Why is it that in America employers think they own you and that you better not dare use your sick time because you’ll be reprimanded if you are out one too many times to care for sick babies?

Why don’t we bake cakes and goodies to take over to our neighbors’ house when they first settle in, instead we drive past and act like they are not even there?

Why do we save all our money to stay in a posh hotel with our kids instead of taking a trip to a developing country and volunteering in an orphanage as a family?

Why are we so selfish at times that when we see or hear about a family member or friend in need of financial or medical help and we do nothing?

My fingers are hot – I could write for hours but I will stop here.  I just have a few questions for you and I hope that you will consider them and really decide if you need to make any changes in your life before the clock stops and you’re walking down that tunnel.

1-When you’re on your deathbed, what are the things you would like to have accomplished, and what are the things that you would like to have taught your children?

2-How many people do you think will stand up at your funeral and say how your humility, love, and passion in life inspired them?

3-How many poor hurting souls will mourn your loss because you were a person who cared about punching a hole out of a poverty-stricken world not just punching a time clock at work every day?

4-When it is all said and done and you have breathed your last breath, where will you spend eternity or the afterlife?

5-Will you have left a “legacy of love” for your children or a legacy of “work as hard as you can, spend on what you wish and who cares about everybody else”.