the future.

This, Z and I decided, is what we absolutely, positively do not want our future lives to be like:

"We get caught in a hectic maze. Rising when the clock determines. Battered 

by news headlines that seem remote and beyond our reach. Jangled by all the 

mechanical operations that launch us into activity and productivity. Tested by 

traffic, forced to calculate time and distance to the second. Elevators and phones 

and gadgets guide us through necessary interactions and keep human interactions 

superficial and at a minimum. Our concentration is interspersed by meetings and 

small crises. At the end of the day we rewind ourselves: traffic, automation, 

headlines, until we set that alarm clock to dictate tomorrow's awakening. Routines of 

ticking and timing. Little room for responding humanly and humanely to the day's events; 

little time to enter into the wisdom and freshness and the promise of its opportunities. 

We feel our lives closing in, confining and conforming us."

(from Spirituality of Compassion, by Joan Puls)

I apologize for the relatively long passage, but when I started typing it out and trying to find a place to cut it off, I just ended up wanting to add more and more on. Isn't it an incredible depiction of so many people's lives out there?

There aren't any plans yet on how to achieve this, but it seems like just keeping that goal in mind is an important step, right? We'll see. Anyone have any tips and tricks to offer?

-M