Self Sufficient

"i dont really know what to do if i have nothing on my list, or the TV on ...or something. its crazy how much i rely on things to keep me occupied," she said while texting on her iphone. i get it. we live in a COMPLEX world. we can do anything at the touch of our fingertips and i think that rocks. however, i was amazed the other day when i took a day long trip to the other side of the country via plane at HOW MUCH we need stimulation. we have NO idea what to do with NOTHING NESS. yes, i practice yoga, but i am not even talking about the yogi way, for even that may seem a bit unrealistic in these times.

but when a child needs to watch 10 movies or a man needs to have his itunes playing for hours i begin to wonder. are we self sufficient?

a few years ago i was interviewed and the woman asked me "so why do you think kids these days want more toys? why do think they are not playing anymore outside? what is really going on ?"

for one moment i wanted to share how schools have cut out recess, or video games are taking over our childrens own imagination, etc etc etc ....and i stopped.

i was even surprised what i said...

i shared that i feel as a society we are SO deeply scared of not doing anything. we do not want the silence. we do not want to just BE. we want to distract, run, have constant STIMULI to not feel something. maybe we feel sad, and do not want to just sit with it. maybe we feel overwhelmed so instead of taking a breath and turning all things OFF, we keep them ON even longer.

maybe it is not about playing. maybe itis not about our children not knowing how to play or cutting recess, etc.

MAYBE its about us. me and you. and what we are DEMONSTRATING whats important.

are we self sufficient?

i wonder.

i watched my kid on the airplane make up stories about the cookie wrapper and the raisin box that was empty. one was a car and the other was a ship. she played in that story for almost an hour and i sat there in awe. i picked up my pen and began to play in my own imagination.i stopped and closed my eyes and felt where i was...who was next to me. i was present. my butt hurt from sitting, but i was present to feeling even that. as my kids imagination soared out of

"nothingness" i thought about HOW MUCH WE COULD DO if we allowed ourselves to play in THAT. in our own innate imaginations. in our OWN sufficiency.

we are not in need of anything.

we are not in need of distractions or new ideas for us to buy and take on.

we are in need of remembering....

if we cannot rely on ourselves ...our OWN imaginations and ideas.

who can we really rely on?