Dear ETK Family,
As I listened to each of the students attending our September Orientation Meeting, I was reminded how busy we all are. Each of you shared stories of trying to keep up with the pace, and while you all are successful at doing exactly that, I thought that the arrival of Fall this past week is a good reminder that sometimes we need to slow down. Au-tumn is probably my favorite season of the year simply because the yellows and browns and oranges reflect natures beginning to find a time to rest. And like the cycle of the seasons, all of us benefit from creating lulls in our lives.
“Time is but the stream we go a’fishing in,” observed one of my favorite American philosophers, Henry David Thoreau. Although there are probably several ways to interpret that comment, I’ve always thought he was provid-ing us with a pretty healthy notion about time; that there are moments in our day-to-day, our week-to-week, when it would be best to alter our frenetic pace. The Eagles, a rock band with whom you may be familiar, sang it this way in one of their songs:
Eager for action and hot for the game
The coming attraction, the drop of a name
They knew all the right people; they took all the right pills
They threw outrageous parties; they paid heavenly bills . . .
Life in the fast lane surely make you lose your mind . . .
Life in the fast lane everything all the time.
The Eagles
Part of time management, then, is finding that winding country road where travel is unhurried. In talking with so many clients over the years I have learned that Thoreau was also right when he noted that men and women lead lives of quiet desperation. The swiftness with which we pattern our days drives us into isolation. The antidote, then, is often our awakening to the slow beauties of life. Meaninglessness is altered by a personal confrontation with awareness.
So find some quiet time this autumn season to enjoy the muted colors. Your time will be well spent.
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