So full of care…
“What is life, if so full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”
A quote that has driven my mind to much thought in these last few years…
At first glance it gives the message to take time and enjoy life and not be so busy, which is a very good thing to apply. I love - so very much - just laying under a star lit sky, looking at them all flicker so peacefully quiet and just soaking up the good energy from the ground beneath me as I contemplate life; I enjoy watching the sunset as beautiful colors unfold out of nowhere and I especially enjoy sunrises as birds sing as if welcoming the glorious new day and the air is crisp and clean.
I stand and stare as often as I can because I love the world around me; I love how beautiful everything is - down to it’s very atomic structure; I love knowing that God loves it when we appreciate the things He made beautiful for us, and I am grateful, and I hope you are too - for there is much to be grateful for when not cluttered by the many things that this life can heap onto your schedule. Which brings me to my next point - the other thing I more recently got out of the quote that I feel is a little deeper….
It goes in line with another quote - and you see how I live life one quote at a time, I feel they put truth into a nice sentence that’s easy to remember - the quote is by Socrates, a man I much adore, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” After you make it a habit to take time to “stand and stare” you start to take that time to reach even deeper into the meaning, as it were, of life and the purpose of everything. It slowly goes from appreciation to contemplation, and before long, in those times of silence and beauty, you ponder about pretty much everything; you start to ‘examine’ life.
“What is life, if so full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” In time - as I pondered this daily, I simplified the question to where I would ask myself, “What is life?” And I think that is the level of thinking that this quote and that Socrates encourages. You need the time away from everyday cares to clear your mind - even if it’s only a few minutes a day, for it will start to grow and you will enjoy it’s sweet flavor.
An unexamined life is one that is just lived one day at a time, the only thoughts crossing your mind consisting of work, money, food, social life and etc - relatively shallow things. A life that is thoroughly examined is one, I believe, that time is taken out every day to just stand, stare and study - stand to slow down your pace, stare to soak in everything and begin to study what it all means. Wherever it is that you start in your thinking, such as why is that flower so pretty and smell so good? Or why are there so many stars at night? Just simple questions like that will burst into other ones. A few minutes a day will turn into all day with a thought in your head - a thought about life.
When you start to look at things a little deeper and start to sense and see life as a bigger picture than you have before, things become more fulfilling and precious. Life makes more sense - yet there’s so much more to it than you knew - and if you turn those thoughts into action you will know what Shakespeare meant when he said, “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and misery.”
So, “What is life, if so full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?” Well, Socrates said that it’s “not worth living,” and I couldn’t agree more.
This is my plea to you. Don’t let life get out of hand; don’t undertake so many things that every day is just a blur and sleep is the only thing giving rest to the whir of everyday life. Too many cares, too busy for meditation is a good way to let life get out of hand. Time may seem slow as it passes, but once we look back at it we realize just how fast it slips away and you know it’s true. I hate looking back on anything with regret, and I’d be willing to bet that you do too. Every lost day and opportunity to do what I love kills me; I don’t know how people do it most of their lives. May we all have the courage to “ride high on that tide which leads on to fortune-the everlasting good fortune of a life well lived.” (Richard L. Evans, This Day… and Always, p 61.) God bless - for that’s what He does best.