There used to be a lot more time in between the point “A’s” and the point “B’s” in the world. I can remember (and I know you can too) when you’d go the mail box in anticipation of receiving a mail-order catalog that was fun to peruse through. Then...if you ordered something...it would usually take 14 days to receive.
No immediate gratification.
Instead..patience was required and then anticipation was the result.
There’s a part of me that thinks...this space of time...in between...promoted a certain "good humaning" skill set. The Pause.
The ability to sit with time...and let it be. And well...the item ordered...arrived when it arrived. I think this also created a greater appreciation in us for when this fulfillment did come around.
I can’t help but wonder if the current level of immediate gratification we experience on the daily... is eroding in essence...a calming human skill set. (What we used to experience in “the pause”.) It’s as if being able to order something online and receive it the next day, or googling a question and receiving an immediate answer, or sending a text to a friend or family member and receiving an immediate reply…has created a restlessness amongst us.
An insatiable need for everything to happen “right now”.
What happened to our ability to sit on a bench and wait for a ride and do so with absolutely no stimulus other than maybe a book or simply observing our present surroundings? We could travel in a car or on a plane and at best we’d look out the window or read a magazine or listen to the radio. And be perfectly content with this.
Could it be that our "good humaning" skills are being eroded by reacting to our own mind’s
demand for entertainment, input, distraction and constant need to
“feed a false nervous tick,” simply because countless ways to entertain ourselves are now available?
I’ve caught myself doing
this...feeling this sense of urgency but not knowing exactly where it
was coming from. That I’ve got to check my facebook feed for the
latest updates, or see what the latest posts on IG contain. Until I
stopped myself and said...”Why?”
“Why this false need to surrender my time to what amounts to mindless banter?”
Because when I sit with this feeling...at the end of spending 30-45 minutes mindlessly scrolling social media...I recognize that nothing I found there was truly fulfilling. It was empty. And I was duped.
My sense of groundedness and self-discipline and control over how I use time has been called into question. These things have been eroding...until I recognized that it’s my responsibility to maintain my own autonomy. A renewed set of human skill sets are being called forth.
The modern world of 2025 continues to pitch fast balls at our faces...almost like we’re being water-boarded by mindless banter from every direction.
Every human has 24 hours in a day. And it’s up to us just how we utilize these hours.
Shall we let ourselves be controlled by a system that’s barraging us?
How do we turn off the screaming fits that our addicted human minds are battering us with to be entertained and “feed the beast?”
First...we must recognize that this is happening. Second...limit. Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes.
Self-Discipline is a key step towards becoming grounded and unshakable.
Over-stimulus is feeding over-thinking. It never stops. It never sleeps.
And is a daily practice to turn it off.
Silence the “current hot topic of the day.” Because tomorrow it won’t even matter. And if it doesn’t matter tomorrow...why should it matter today?
Instead...let’s return to listening to our hearts..the deeper parts of ourselves that have been silently sitting there waiting to be heard. The what-truly-matters-the-most-to-us parts of ourselves.
Let’s return to feeling our souls and strengthening our skills to discern what truly matters again.
And then mute everything else.
And stand in the strength of this daily action!
I don’t want to allow myself to be eroded away by mindlessness and fools gold.
Yet I am challenged by this nearly every day.
It helps that I live in the mountains where cell-signal and internet connection isn’t always available. So I get the blessing of being reminded that it’s even possible to turn it off...because sometimes it just goes out. Little to no warning.
But then I hear the silence again. Because the screaming stopped.
And there’s peace again.
Photo Credit: myself...pic of a leaf skeleton
