Time Within Ourselves

About a mile or two into the journey yesterday, I came to a very definitive point.  There I was completely on my own, walking through the middle of 'nowhere' surrounded only by the beautifully fresh air.  My thoughts were running to wherever they wanted to.  Life, jobs, women, hobbies, meaning, whatever...  And I realized that this is really what Western civilization is missing - time within one's self.

Our days are so full of everything.  Families, jobs, dreams, wants, desires, obligations, stresses and worries...  But life is only as complicated as we make it, and we in the West have chosen to make ours so incredibly complicated.  Not that this is in itself a drawback for our lives, but something that should be recognized and worked with and through.  One of the things that I like best about meditation or running is that it clears your mind and body of many worries.  But it was amazing that hiking like I did yesterday went even further, it was a whole day, alone with myself, amongst nothing but fresh air, blue sky, and nature's own creation.  It is a clean place, there are no memories in a new forest, there is no baggage.  Only the things that you take in with you - and fortunately for us, the kind of mental and emotional baggage that we carry with us throughout our daily lives is something we don't have to carry out of that forest.

I just wish that we as a society would take more time to stop and be alone with our selves, alone with who we really are.  Not the 'you' that you present to the external world on a daily basis, that we show other people who's opinions we already care way too much about, but the one in the mirror that we need to find the most comfort with - ourselves.