DOES EVERYONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO RELAX?

[billh1]

10 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

and a good bourbon. 

Sounds like a plan!

Cheers!

Bill

[leftimatic]

Back on topic with a short story.

    Four years ago sitting on the roof of a nearly completed Kentucky Fried Chicken. I had been gently nudged into running the crew and subtrades that built it. Not to stressful been through a lot worse, but was recently hired on with this company and they were testing me I guess. I spent the last 15  years building my career working 16 hr days, 7 days a week tirelessly. Working my way up to site foreman and well on my way to site super for the general contractor of multi million dollar commercial jobs. Shopping malls and giant box stores etc. Always high  pressure and crazy deadlines and such.  Anyway great view up there and me and one of the roofers were shooting the hay and I happened to complain about needing to get back out of town and start making some real money. All work would be out of town though and if I went back with the company I had previously worked for there would be times I wouldn't come home for a month at a time. I was weighing the options and wondering how the wife would feel about it but I really wanted to just go and make the money. 

He turned and looked at me and said, "Man, your kids will never remember the money you made" And then I remembered why I left that company and bought the acreage with my wife and kids.

Well, I finished up the KFC and asked for a layoff and went home and started farming. I haven't looked back with a single regret. Times get tough but who cares. I crunched the numbers and with my wife working 4 days a week and then with us growing most of what we eat our bills are less than ever. We raise enough pork and chicken including eggs to feed ourselves and a few other families which pays for us to  basically eat for free. What more could a guy ask for. I see my boys (6 and 4) everyday all day and I love it. Maybe some day I will go get a "real job" as most people call it but I stay just busy enough being a house husband and farmer to keep me happy.

So I say take your time put your feet up and relax. Your family will thank you for it plus the cigars are so much better when you take the time to think about them.

[headstand]

It's about priorities. If you want things or experiences abroad, you will need cash. People smarter than I am seem to be able to come by cash more easily. For me it means giving up on relaxation. If I could give up on things, life would slow down significantly. But I'm addicted. The addiction wanes with age yet I can't help but think life would have been more relaxing and pleasant had I prioritized for less rather than more. Temperament comes into play as well - it would kill some people to force them to slow down. More power to them is what I say.

[polarbear]

The biggest challenge I find is being able to "unplug" myself when I walk through the front door of an evening.
My evenings and days off are often punctuated by checking my work phone for emails or missed calls every 15-30mins
Conversations I have with people are filled with moments of silence as we both check our Facebook accounts, usually while one person is still talking.
It seems more and more like we are more concerned with what is going on away from us rather than what is happening in front of us.
My darling girl telling me how her day was is more important than checking the football scores, or scrolling through my News Feed.

Our house is now a phone free zone 4 night a week. If we're both home our phone get plugged in to charge and stay there.
We now share meals and give each other 100% of our attention.
I'll sit on my back porch, smoke a cigar and let my phone buzz away neglected on my kitchen bench. If something is urgent, it will ring and then I will decide whether to answer it.
The 2 dozen emails I get between when I get home and when I go to work stay unanswered until I am on company time.

We get so few moments of peace and quiet these days. Times when we can sit, drink a beer, smoke a cigar and enjoy the silence. I've found I much prefer to enjoy a situation in front of me rather than try to live vicariously through my friends on the internet