Stop this Crazy Thing!

 Remember the Jetsons?  Da da DA da!   Always, during the opening, George is out walking Astro on the treadmill, and it gets away from him.  He yells:  “Jane”!  “Stop this crazy thing”!

Such a great metaphor for our hectic lives in which find ourselves reacting to and with increasing speed, trying to keep up with the machine.  The machine in George Jetson’s life is his treadmill.  In our culture, it’s the electronics, the consumption and the spectacular array of things we have created and accumulated to keep us busy, and ultimately to worry about.  And like George’s treadmill it gets away from us.

My clients were referring to the early stage of their relationship.  “It was so much fun”!  “We had time to be together then”. “We enjoyed the simple things, picnics, hikes, just hanging out”.

As far as I can tell, there are still the same number of moments in day.  We just use them differently when we’re not intentionally focused on being in joy.  We get caught up in reacting to ever-increasing speed at which data comes at us.  Now we have 800 channels on the TV, several voice mails, several e-mail accounts, more *entertainment* and what happens to the happy factor?  It drops!  What do we long for?  Time.

We have time.  What many of us don’t have is a priority system that allows for meaningful use of it.  Give your relationship priority.  Take time for the simple things.  Stop the crazy machine.

And be.