We so often get caught up in the process of life that we tend to forgetwhatmatters in this world. What matters is our environment; whether it be a natural setting, our relationships with friends are purely just unexpected encounters with people or objects. What seems like a simple concept is sadly overlooked in our complex world. From the moment we wake to the second we lay our heads back down for the night, our focus is fixated on the ‘doing’ and not the ‘enjoying’.
I know from my experiencethat if I am not doing ‘something’ I feel is productive, then I’m wasting my time. My life goes from one task to another which sometimes makes me feel like a mouse inside of a wheel that just goes round and round….
Whenever I feel trapped in that never ending process I make it my mission to just get up and go; leave the state or country. If I am not able to leave then I’ll just do something completely random to get my mind off this so called ‘process’.
I spent two years at the Illinois Institute of Technology and even though I constantly told myself that I would run down to 31st street beach, I just never did. Another assignment or task was holding me back. The sad thing isthat I let it. I run quite often but when I do it’s never to enjoy my environment. I simply do it to meet a certain goal, whether it be time or distance, and when completed I just head home. Do I enjoy running? I used to. Slowly over time though it has become yet another task. I can’t let that happen.
So a couple of daysago I decided to run, but this time, to run out of pure enjoyment. I finally jogged over to 31st beach….it only took me a little over two years but, in any case, I’m glad I did. What I saw on my jog around Chicago was exciting, calming and best yet, it was all unplanned.
First stop was 31st beach. I was greeted by multi-colored trees and children playing and screaming all around. The beach was quite beautiful and peaceful. McCormick place, Northerly Island, the Shedd aquarium and the Planetarium are few of the notable stops that the path leads you to if you continue up north. Upon exciting, a quick stop was made at the Taste of Chicago, followed by a delicious meal at Cafecito (which I highly recommend) and finally millennium park where we witnessed funny looking bikes, chess battles, cops on horses, and music at the Pritzker pavilion. The last site to be seen was the Color Jam installation.
Who knew so much can be seen during a short one hour jog. It just goes to show you that if you set out to run out of pure enjoyment, you will be greeted by all things beautiful and unexpected. We are constantly surrounded by these wonderful instances but the problem is we tend to not notice them because our minds and our eyes are clouded with tasks that must be completed by days end. Stop doing and start enjoying your life while you can.
