Hopes for a new year, by a friend of mine

A friend of mine posted this on facebook, and I completely agree with it. So I'm sharing it here. Think, please.

"I hear so many say they wish for world peace and say they know that is starts in their own back yard, but more than that is starts with every person you know and love or hate or are indifferent about, and i just wanted to share this with the people in my life for the new year. Something to think about that touched me deeply and speaks to my soul in a way that few things ever do these days. This is our world and these are our lives and only we can make the differences in them.

THE PARADOX OF OUR AGE
BY HIS HOLINESS THE XIVth DALAI LAMA

WE HAVE BIGGER HOUSES, BUT SMALLER FAMILES
MORE CONVENIENCES BUT LESS TIME
WE HAVE MORE DEGRESS, BUT LESS SENSE
MORE KNOWLDEGE, BUT LESS JUDGEMENTS
MORE EXPERTS BUT MORE PROBLEMS
MORE MEDICINES BUT LESS HEALTHINESS
WE'VE BEEN ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON AND BACK BUT
HAVE TROUBLE CROSSING THE STREET TO MEET THE NEW NEIGHBORS
WE BUILD MORE COMPUTER TO HOLD MORE INFORMATION
TO PRODUCE MORE COPIES THAN EVER BEFORE,
BUT HAVE LESS COMMUNICATION,
WE HAVE BECOME LONG ON QUANTITY AND SHORT ON QUALITY
THESE ARE THE TIMES OF FAST FOOD AND SLOW DIGESTION
TALL MEN, BUT SHORT ON CHARACTER
STEEP PROFITS, BUT SHALLOW RELATIONSHIPS.
IT IS A TIME WHERE THERE IS MUCH IN THE WINDOW BUT NOTHING IN THE ROOM.......


for me all this rings true, and to me all of it shouldnt. I may be an old soal or born in the wrong era or living on repeat of a past life, but whatever it is ive always wanted to live simpler, and i dont mean in every way i mean in the ways that count. I like to know my neighbors and to know the names of the people i pass in the streets the markets and in the woods. I want to live in a world where all the essentials that i cant make and have to buy , i know the people who made them, know their familys live in their neighborhoods. i know this is a pipe dream, a fantasy of a life from a world thats long gone by even though not even a hundred years ago thats the way things were. and i know that those hopes are big hopes and i will continue to hope them. But i am practical i know the little differences come from buying from your local sotres and not box stores and bringing bags to the market instead of recieving plastic is better. But to me these things arnt enough. and the little things we do really matter. In the new year my goal for myself is to get in touch, not just more with spirit or with nature or with the things that will save the environment, but with the people in my world because thats just how i am made and what im made for. And as silly as this may sound to all of you i had to share it anyways, because this last year for me was one of the hardest ones ive ever had and i know that without you in my life i wouldnt have made it through, and i mean that very literally. This year take time out to show the love and apprecaitaion you feel for your friends and aquantences, dont just feel it, because it isnt enough and without it our world suffers and everything in it and all of the people in it do to. when the resources are depleated and the fields are barren and all we have left is the commmunity we share i want to have real community left to share it in, to me thats what really counts and all that really matters, i think someday other people will realize it too, i hope its just not too late."