Love the real, cause its real love
I have been thinking so much of reality, not the digital one that is making up so much of our time, but of the one we wake up to and go to sleep from. I've been thinking of my place in it, in a global sense of what is my purpose, and in a local sense of what am I doing with my relations, my habits, and my attention. I am young, full of life and vigor. I look back on myself spending more and more time watching videos, scrolling through reels, and playing video games. I honestly get sad. The amount of time I talk to family and friends, and the missed chances to see people, to know people, to see and know places. There are people in my hometown who everyone knows, but I don't. It wouldn't bother me
I was a bit of a shut-in in my teens. I did read a lot of books (which was great) and go outside quite a bit, but I didn't go far. You can't when you don't have a driver's license or a proper car. Yet, even when I did, I kept around town. I didn't too far. Now that I am older, out of school, and have a car, I want to travel more. The thoughts of me being too old to travel and regretting it, sometimes it eats at me. The inverse problem happens, where now that I want to go do things I am constantly busy, whereas in my early teens I had plenty of time, yet didn't want to go out as much.
Now I have to make some time. I've been busy with work, and my significant other works a different schedule than me. I couldn't imagine experiencing so much without her. It would feel wrong. So I have to make it work somehow.
I have been taking long walks. and been sitting and just listening. It sounds kinda corny, but it feels so vivid. I feel great, to use all my senses to experience this world around us. Compared to hearing and seeing a screen, it feels like after you fully clean your glasses and everything feels sooo 4D or whatever. I have in the past few years started to appreciate the Earth around me much more. Long walks, taking in the breeze, sounds, leaves, birds, and everything. I understand people who move to the woods and live off the land. Something that made me realize this more and more, are when I hear people moving to my neck of the woods. They comment on the lovely scenery, where a lot of the locals take it for granted (their words not mine). It is so rich experiencingly. Honestly, I love the real.