Life skills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those of you who know my fabulous husband Matt, are aware that he could be considered the poster child of modern day living. He is a multi-tasker extraordinaire living life at the speed of a formula 1 race car driver.  Surprisingly, he has the miraculous quality of cutting through to the essence of things with a level of depth that would surprise anyone and continues to baffle me to this very day.  Such a moment occurred yesterday as we were sharing lunch after skiing our hearts out on the mountain yesterday.  We were discussing the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution TV show, that we had watched together the night prior, when he calmly stated:  We have stopped learning life skills!!!!!

Dumbfounded by this intense statement, I dug further and asked him to elaborate.  He said, we as a culture, no longer know how to manage our money, feed our children and ourselves, and parent our offsprings to become well functioning adults.  For the rest of the day, his statement did not leave my mind.  Why, I asked myself was this happening?  No doubt, I agree with him, but what has caused our learning in these important areas of life to stop?  In spending some time to think about this, my conclusion is this:  We as a culture are obsessed with time and efficiency.  

 We have become consumed with doing things in record speed and we have eliminated any task that might consume precious time.  We no longer cook, because it takes too much time, we bring our clothes to the cleaner, because washing them takes too much time, and because we are all working to get somewhere in life (do not ask me where) we no longer take the time to raise our children.  I myself know, that the issue of time is on the forefront of even my five year old daughter as she blurts out statements such as: "you have just wasted my time" to me.    Our preoccupation with time, has caused us to stop learning the most important skill of life:  to live in the present rather than chase the future. Shouldn't we all re-focus our attention to how we are living life today, and as a result have a much better outlook for tomorrow.  I  would like to end with a quote from Francis Gray that sums up my thoughts.  Here's to living the good life.......
Francis Gray
"Look well to this day. Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day"