Mind The Gap

In ten days, we’ll be flying to Europe…our annual late summer trip to The Mediterranean Sea. I can’t wait for buttered baguettes at breakfast, chilled Rosé at sunset, perfect salads and unlimited Brie. When we are unencumbered by our routines and responsibilities, we realize just how relaxing life could and should ultimately be. Too bad most of us only know this feeling once a year, and for two very short harried weeks. Lifestyle Design expert Tim Ferris asserts that our popular paradigm is passé and that we spend our best years awaiting “paradise” in our old age. If retirement could visit us when we have endless energy and bikini-bodies, perhaps our values would change. What would life be like if we didn’t wallow in wanting and we abandoned the mirage of “someday…” Would our worlds become a banquet of pleasure and possibilities? Might we suddenly find magic, meaning and even “paradise” in the mundane?

Happily, power isn’t found in a passport; our minds can always travel to a new place. Our pockets are lined with unlimited airline vouchers; we can choose any mental destination and board any psychological plane. Reframing our current realities is more refreshing than constantly running away.  So, how does an engineered epiphany happen and how might we bridge the border between work and play? It starts by minding the gap between our fantasies and where we are today. “Minding the gap” is taking inventory of undervalued blessings; the people, places and things that make our lives great. The cozy bed we prefer to any hotel accommodation, the friendly neighbor, a peaceful ride home on the train...the child who leaps to the door to greet us and the bills that are thankfully paid. When we welcome in joy and gratitude, our disgruntled demons pack their bags and escape. When we saunter through life saying silent “thank you’s”, our wanderlust is kept at bay.  It is hard to long for "other" when our hearts no longer ache.

So, the key is to ask the question, “What is standing between me and “someday…”? Sometimes all it takes is to notice what IS there. Paradise is a matter of perspective...A shift is all it takes.