Idle mind is not always a devils workshop. Sure, it brings out a lot of negativity, but for me at least, its negativity associated with past positivity. There was a time when we used to be friends, not that we aren't now, but we used to spend every spare minute sharing nothing important but quite our very lives in the nothings, the no news and the unavoidable gossip that we used to share. We used to ridicule ourselves, we used to ridicule others, but no one was an object of ridicule.
There was nothing to stop us, nothing to tell us to hold back, no common sense to push its weight around and suggest that presentation is what its all about. But when the wheel of time spins, it pushes out more good with every day of our lives. Our expectations increase, our responsibilities increase and we lose out the real good stuff in life. No wonder we become OLD! Take out all the good stuff from a child's life, duh... you will say he/she is acting old wont you?
Each new turn in our life not only adds new barriers and limits our interactions to lesser people, but also builds solid walls of "busy"ness around ourselves from our old acquaintances, friends etc. or to put it succinctly, our life. I know its preaching, let us take out some time from this rigmarole and reach out to our past. I'm sure chewing the cud is as pleasant as eating.
Its easier to preach than to practice. Lets at least realize that we are leaving ourselves far behind in our drive to go forward.
