The television is on as we cook dinner. The radio is cranked as we drive our cars. Streaming audio at our desks, iPods steam into our skulls as we run, and the internet is always alive on our phones.
What happened to some peace and quiet? When is the last time you sat somewhere with nothing to capture your thoughts but silence? I am just as guilty as the next guy, I always have some sort of information link, feeding my brain, telling me what to think, sing, or doodle about. It’s a cultural disease that’s got us wrapped up in a pool of misguided thoughts that we don’t need. We don’t need the switch turned ON every waking moment of every day. Jack Johnson tells the same story in a song he wrote (which is ironic because I want you to turn the music off for a bit) about everyone just “slowing down”…
Brushfire fairytales
Itsy bitsy diamond whales
Big fat hurricanes
Yellow bellied given names
Well shortcuts can slow you down
And in the end we're bound
To rebound off of we
Well dust off your thinking caps
Solar powered plastic plants
Pretty pictures of things we ate
We are only what we hate
But in the long run we have found
Silent films are full of sound
Inaudibly free
Slow down everyone
You're moving too fast
Frames can't catch you when
You're moving like that
So do yourself a favor, slow down. Take a deep breath. Stare at the sky and everything in it. Watch a tree out your window. Clear your mind for five minutes and hear yourself living in a world of peace and quiet. Trust me, the world will not slow down around you, but you might just gain a step on the world by letting it pass you by for a moment.
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