The Good Life

After posting about Hawaii, I've been thinking... Why is it that we (most of us, anyway) always long to be somewhere else, do something else, and in some cases even be somemeone else? Why are places like Hawaii, Fiji, the Virgin Isles or Greece percieved as Paradise on Earth by people living elsewhere? I'm sure there are loads of people living there who'd much rather be somewhere else, too... Why this never ending quest for something else, something "better"?

I mean - my life is good. I live in the country with my family, we have our little piece of the Earth, and althought it's not Paradise, it's Home. We love and respect each other, we have what we need, we're as close to being happy as is probably good for anyone.

Sometimes, though, I can't help thinking that life might well be better somewhere else. In a cabin on the beach in Fiji, for example. Or in a Greek village by the sea.

I'm probably wrong - life would be much the same - without the harsh winters, but one still has to have an income, deal with tax people, deal with schools, do the laundry... All in a different language (except, perhaps, the laundry bit...), new people, new friends, new people to tell ones' life story to. Provided they're interested! And when the novelty wears off, the difference would all be in the climate, and perhaps in the lack of roots and bonds - of culture, of family, and of friendship.
OK, but is that all bad, you might say. No, but it's not all good either. (I think I may be getting to the point soon... stay awake, won't you...)

I do believe in the quest for The Good Life, I think it's a genetic thing that we just can't escape. Sometimes, though, the good life may be closer than we think.
I think that we all have the ability to enjoy Life, and I think it's all in the mind.
A change of attitude towards the here and now would be very likely to do wonders for the quality of life of most people.

Instead of spending my time dreaming about being somewhere else next year, I'd get more out of life by enjoying myself here and now! I still may be somewhere different or better next year, but I'll have lived all the nows in the meantime.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't dream. We should! But the present is important, too.
Life, after all, is what happens while you're not paying attention. And then it's over.

A simplistic approach? Maybe. But the two last sentences above are still true. It's that easy. And that hard.