Winter Picnics

In my line of work we deal with lots of issues around perception. We live in a world where your senses tell us one thing and many time our hearts and soul tell us another. Unfortunately, we often don't trust our deepest instincts. I think our perceptions are also clouded by our most basic view of the world. Is the world a "half full" place or a "half empty". It makes a big difference with how your life goes, depending on that very perception.

I was raised by two "half full" parents. No matter what there was something positive that came from the situation. They tell a story about stopping on the side of the road to eat on our way somewhere. No rest stops, no McDonald's, just a wide place where the car could be safe. We stopped and Mom made tuna fish sandwiches. (Remember when things like Mayo out of the fridge was not cause of alarm?) It was cold and snowy. I am reported to have been delighted and announced that I loved Winter Picnics.

These last few months have been quite the Winter Picnic. I confess I have been less enthusiastic about the stop. The problem with this picnic is that it seems to be over staying it's welcome. I want to go to the next spot in the road but need to rest here for a bit longer. It is very hard given that everything else seems to be moving forward with great speed. I perceive that the world is passing us by right now. I would like to step back on the treadmill and don't know how. I know that our old lives have gone and that we will have to create new ones when we are done with this stop. I see the hustle and the bustle of lives and know we might never go back to that way of living. I wonder if we all fill our lives with that frenetic activity because we don't know how to sit at the side of the road and enjoy a simple sandwich.

To be fair, we have replaced one kind of activity for another. We schedule appointments with a dozen doctors and clinics. We spend time in the clinic, at the emergency room, waiting for prescriptions to be filled, number to go up and then waiting for them to go down. The only difference is most of the time we don't get to know when the next appointment will be. I guess you could say we spend a lot of time enjoying the crisp snow, the sight of a bird flicking through the woods and the warm winter sun.

Our Winter Picnic continues.