Americans are silly, fickle creatures. We tend to careen throughout our days in a frenzy of activity designed to make us more prosperous, educated and entertained.

Parents work overtime to make more money so we can buy more stuff the magazines and television tells us we need. We enroll our children in numerous after school activities, leaving little time for them to come home, relax, play outside and just be kids. I’ve literally witnessed some people fretting about whether or not their children will be accepted into the top universities while the child is only in kindergarten!

Family members are rarely present at the same time to enjoy sitting down to dinner together. By the time the kids finally make it home from ballet or ball practice they are exhausted, irritable and are ready to go to sleep, thus missing valuable time with Mom and Dad. Then years later, when the child is estranged and out of control, parents just can’t figure out what happened. It’s like they don’t even know their kids. Duh!

Technology, while critical to our lives and commerce, has not made our lives easier; instead, it has literally added to our collective workloads because of the increased efficiency of compiling massive amounts of information previously unheard of. Projects that would have taken days or weeks to complete twenty years ago, now take mere minutes to pull together. This has not decreased the workload but has instead created a higher level of expectation in that we can now produce more volume in a shorter amount of time.

Because our weekends are about the only time we can spend with our families, we try to pack as much "fun" into the hours as possible, only adding to the stress. And we wonder why we’re so miserable and unfulfilled.

I hear so many people lamenting that they will be happy "when so-and-so happens." When little Johnny graduates from high school. When we get the bigger house we’ve been dreaming of. When we go on that expensive vacation. When we are able to retire and the kids are out of college. Blah, blah, blah.

What about now? What if "when" never comes? We work so hard to get ahead and accumulate things we think will make us happy, but how will our kids remember us? What kind of legacy will we leave for them? Do we really want to teach them to follow our stressed out example? Is it even possible to slow down and savor the time and relationships we have been blessed with?

My Mom, who is in her middle 70’s, told me about a conversation she recently had with a long time friend. They were enjoying lunch and reminiscing about their lives many years before when their children were small; that everyone in their circle of friends attended the same church and how they endured the same type of financial struggles most young families had at the time.

Both of them are now elderly and widowed with grown children and older grandchildren and they find it more difficult to get around with each year that passes. Both would say over time they’ve enjoyed great happiness and triumph while surviving terrific grief and disappointments and at this point, life for them is bittersweet.

Mom’s friend made a wonderful and rather profound statement that will always stick with me. She said, "You know, we were so happy back then but we just didn’t have sense enough to know it!" They, like all generations, were working hard to make a better life for themselves and their children. But even in that simpler time, before the advent of computers and the information age, they failed to slow down enough to enjoy the life they were living.

It appears this is an unfortunate aspect of human nature. The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, pondered this in the book of Ecclesiastes. In chapter 3, verses 12-13, he concludes, "I know that there is nothing better for them (mankind) than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live; and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God."

In chapter 12 verse 13, he states, "All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness] and the whole duty for every man."

The key to a great life seems rather simple. Enjoy your family, friends and the fruit of your work right where you are at this moment. Make serving and loving God your top priority. Make plans, but stop living in the future. Celebrate today because there are no guarantees that tomorrow will come.

Carpe Diem. Seize the day.

Copyright Donna Wasson