Everything seems so expensive.
But is it?
I asked AI.
It gave a detailed response taking into account inflation, the pandemic, supply chain issues, energy prices, wars, the weather, and just about anything else it could think of.
The answer?
Yes everything is more expensive.
Over the last five years it has accelerated, with salaries, therefore spending power, not keeping up.
When you really put your mind to something.
When you give it your all, all your focus and energy.
It’s amazing what you can achieve.
But we rarely do it.
We procrastinate, we defer, we ignore, we phone it in.
Imagine what we could achieve if we really put our mind to it.
Gave it all our focus and energy.
Brought our A-game.
Each and every day.
We get frustrated when we are told that we can’t do this or that anymore due to age or health. Not that we wanted to. But it was nice that we could, that it was an option, should we ever want to. But when it is gone, removed, no longer an option, we become sad, annoyed, with a sense of loss, for something we never had, or wanted.
We only get one life and not enough time to experience everything that we could possibly experience. So for example being told that you can’t go deep-sea diving, or lift really heavy weights, or run a marathon, ever, triggers a sense of FOMO. A fear of missing out. Of never being able to experience those actions or activities. I mean, there are plenty of other things you can engage in and experience, if you wanted. But being told that something has been taken off your table of life, that it is no longer an option for you, can feel depressing.
I like to think about it another way. That you have reached the point where you are at today through a series of decisions and actions. Every possible action or activity in front of you is not guaranteed to be there forever. You make choices every moment of your life, and some of those choices will remove options from the table. True, you may feel a sense of loss when some things are no longer an option, but take pleasure in the fact that there is still a table in front of you full of options. Every day that you wake to that table is a good day.
It seems weird that we should track our water intake. Yet most of us are not drinking enough. There’s even apps to help track your intake. Are you hitting your daily target? I think it’s 8 glasses, or 3 litres, or 4 pints depending on who you ask.
Why are we not drinking enough? Modern diets with over-priced food and drink numbing our taste buds and quench for thirst? Or feeling hungry when we are actually thirsty?
If in doubt, drink. Water that is. Anything else could be a diuretic. Don’t risk it. Best play it safe and drink water. That’s what your body wants anyway. A nice cool glass of water. Eight of them a day.
Stay hydrated!
You hear the term a lot: reaching rock bottom.
When do you know you’ve hit rock bottom? There always seems further that you can fall. So when is it the actual rock bottom?
“I hit rock bottom and turned my life around“. Maybe it’s the point at which you can’t take any more or mentally make the decision to stop falling and to do something about it? Maybe everyone’s rock bottom is different. It’s when you decide to stop falling and to move in the opposite direction.
I need to stop falling.
Feeling your age. An expression often used when you feel old. Unable to do something that you used to do with ease. Or used as an insult to infer a loss of physical ability. Feeling your age.
Yet in my head I’m forever twenty four. I’m constantly surprised when I look in the mirror. I have to do a quick check that it’s me. I look older. When I dream or imagine myself doing something I’m always younger. Reality kicks in when I actually attempt something, or my body tells me to pack it in and act your age. These days I’m definitely feeling my age. How old do you feel?
I’m walking on a beach reflecting. It reminds me of another beach, long ago at the start of my career. I was sent to the South coast to work with a client. I was lodged at a lovely hotel with pristine beaches. It’s the end of a productive day and I’m walking along the beach on a call discussing the future with a friend. The road ahead looks bright.
Cut to the present. I’m on another beach, memories of the first triggered. How did life pan out? Did my career go how I wanted it to go? Am I where I wanted to be at this age?
Reflections.
I received a notification that a relative had died. I was told by text.
I hadn’t seen or heard from them in a long while. They’d moved away, lived their life, then apparently moved back into the area we all group in at some point without telling anyone. Not a million miles away, living their life. Then diagnosed with cancer a few months back. Terminal. Still no reaching out to anyone. Until it was too late. Now their son is going through their phone book notifying people, anyone, they once knew.
I wasn’t in the phone book, so I was notified second-hand, by text. By the way X has died. A follow-on text after an initial one asking a mundane question about something unrelated. With the death notification an afterthought, or received as one.
The departed was a part of my childhood up to my teens. A long time ago. The pain isn’t as raw as it would be with someone closer or who has spent a lot of time with you recently. Yet there is still pain, of loss, of sadness.
All those years, laughs, sadness, memories, brought to an end with a simple text message.
I was at a low point. Unemployed, or on a break, depending on how you want to spin it. Not much to do but binge watch TV and while away the days.
I discovered one show that resonated. A person trying to find themselves, in a remote location. Plus it was entertaining. Men in trees.
It starred Anne Heche as a self help guru type whose relationship had broken down and was at a loss in life. She was on a book tour and in a remote village in Alaska when her life fell apart. She decides to stay and figure things out. I was figuring things out. I enjoyed the show. Watched every episode.
It’s one of those things that triggers memories. When I hear or read it mentioned, or Anne Heche, it reminds me of that period of my life. Good memories. So I was sad to hear when she passed. Whatever her life was, she entertained me during a low point. She cheered me up and I thank her for that. It’s sad when anyone passes, whether you know them, or they affect your own life in some distant way. But I wanted to say thanks for Men in trees.
We are an impatient lot. We love our fast food and our fast tech. The latter, a term used to define cheap electronic gadgets and devices. You can go online and have one delivered to you tomorrow for less than the cost of a meal.
Portable battery chargers, adapters, fans, night lights, wireless doorbells, motion sensors, bag trackers, and just about anything else that you or someone can dream up and develop cheaply and have shipped by slow boat from Asia to your country for you purchase next day delivery.
These gadgets use a lot of rare earth minerals and other materials that are both costly to collect, manufacture, and recycle. The result is that all this fast tech is ending up in landfills and amateur processing plants around the world. Just look on YouTube at the videos of people collecting circuit boards to melt off the precious metals, or others burning the plastics to clear the mountains of e-waste. It is both damaging to the environment and human health. Yet we keep buying more and more of this fast tech because it’s cheap and serves a current need, just like fast food.