The sooner you realize life is not a brand-new car, a bigger house or the latest fucking iPhone 6,7,28 whatever number they are up to, the sooner you will begin to live.
Life is having the time to enjoy your morning coffee, not having to drink it standing up in the subway next to the guy with the funky smell. Life is taking the time to be able to take a few deep breaths and enjoy the moment. Did you know that just by looking at water it relaxes you. (even if it’s the Hudson…..well unless there’s a dead body flowing in it!!!)
What does this have to do with parenting? Well EVERYTHING!! If you’re not happy with your own life, how can you make your kids life better. No matter how hard you try, if you’re not at peace with yourself you can’t do stuff for others.
Put on your headphones and head to a park. Do some yoga, run, do some people watching to see what other people are doing with their life (just don’t look at the guy with the tattoo on his neck). When having lunch at work don’t eat while looking at your dumb phone, look out the window, go downstairs and meet somebody.(I can strike a conversation anywhere in a second, and I meet new people every day.)
Dedicate a few hours a week to yourself. Put YOU on the top of the list for those few hours. Do you like movies? What about driving? When was the last time you took a drive without rushing to work or to one of your kids’ activities? Put your favorite driving music and just cruise like you used to when you were younger and didn’t have a care in the world. Go to a dance class, an art exhibit, photography classes…… the list goes on. Come on, what did you always want to do but didn’t get a chance. Do it now, show your kids that being a parent doesn’t mean you’re dead.
But you must, I repeat you must put it in your schedule. The way you put your work appointments or the kids activities. Put one two hours a week under the category ME TIME! And don’t put no golf outings with clients or drinks with a girlfriend. Think you and only you. What gets your blood flowing?
What the fuck is life if we are not living??? Next time you are ready to spend some money on a new phone new car or a bigger tv, think if you can spend it a little smarter and for you, not for people to see that you bought something. What about a telescope to look at the stars? A mountain bike so you can go for rides in nature. A fishing pole to go fishing, join a yoga class. And if you don’t have money there are still plenty of free things to do in every city. I had a blast at Bryant park this summer. Watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where hundreds of people were dancing to “shake it up baby”!
Come on guys. We are so lucky to be alive. There are millions of planets around us, and there is life only on ours. (well unless you’re my buddy Marko, who says “they” are everywhere.
Give meaning to your life and everyone’s life around you will get better.
Living 1 - Just waiting to die 0
