Wish Away

There is an almost weekly occurrence in my office. Someone will moan, "I wish it was the weekend already." And someone else (usually older and wiser) will warn, " Don't wish your life away."

It is such an easy thing to wish your life away, to always be living for the next big moment. We seem to always be looking forward. Whatever we have, we always seem to be looking for something more or different. While daydreaming about our future vacation/house/job/spouse/children/etc can be fun, it can also be a waste of time.

I find myself in zoned out, daydream or 'if only' mode quite a bit and I am never more guilty of it than during my commute. That 30 minutes to and from work is often purely a means to an end- it is about arriving at my destination and heaven help anything that gets in my way. I suppose a lot of us shut off in these little moments and there isn't anything really wrong with that. But this week, I started to wonder how much better my attitude would be if I stopped rushing through my commute and actually appreciated it.  That 30 minutes to and from work everyday takes me through the heart of the city centre, past dozens of nice statues and buildings, and most importantly past thousands of opportunities to engage with other people.

While life definitely holds those big moments, most of life is full of the mundane and even tedious, the everyday getting up and going to work, buying groceries, cleaning the house, bathing, paying bills. We are so quick to try and move past these aspects of life to get to the more exciting or challenging moments. But I think my coworkers are right- in doing so, we wish our lives away. Life isn't all Fridays and weddings, and when we aren't fully present in the more mundane parts of our lives we can miss the opportunities, blessings and little obediences that prepare us to handle those big moments with grace and peace.

If only I can live this lesson a little more frequently...