Relationships

Rob Paterson often thinks and writes about what it means to be truly alive. One section in a recent post resonated with me and I wanted to save it. Most of us would say that our closest relationships were among the most precious things in our lives, but what's the first thing to get sacrificed when we get stressed and busy? Our friendships.

"Think of a time when you were so busy that you drifted away from others. How did you feel? More human or less? Think of a time when you were strongly linked to others. How did you feel then? The paradox is that when we have a difficult challenge in front of us, we often default in the doing and lose the connections and hence our power."

This connects directly to some of the thinking I've been doing about gaps between our stated values and how we actually choose to spend our time and money, and flies in the face of what we're learning about happiness. Rob's also pondering what kinds of lifestyle decisions we'll be making five years from now if the price of gas goes up a buck a year.