The Tragedy We are Living that We are Blind To

I had this great epiphany while peeling carrots yesterday; yes, carrots. When you are open for change and growth in your life, even carrots can coach you! You need a little background first, however. My family has gotten very healthy since February. Together, we have lost almost 150 pounds, 62 of those are mine. We have stopped eating processed food and have embraced a nutritional cleansing program that is LITERALLY changing our lives. We feel and look amazing. We have so much energy and feel so vital that our once chaotic life has fallen into a routine… a FAST routine, but still a routine. We are, like most families: busy. Busy, Busy. BUSY. It was only when I was peeling those carrots yesterday that it occurred to me how much “busy” is costing us… and not just my one family, but what “busy” is costing us as a nation.

When is the last time you peeled a carrot? I bet it has been a VERY long time. You know why? Because we all buy baby carrots now. They are cute. They are fast. They are easy. They don’t make a messy pile of peels and junk up your kitchen. You can just reach in the fridge and grab a handful and go. It is SO great. We are SO smart. And we are SO healthy and prepared, aren’t we?  NO! We are not. We are BS-ing ourselves. Baby carrots are HORRIBLE for you. They are just REAL carrots, cut into little uniform pieces and shaped pretty. They are soaked in chlorine bleach and then served up to you wet, in a bag. Gross.

Baby carrots are the perfect metaphor for most of our lives: they are cute with their little, perfect, rounded corners and their grab-and-go ease, and we are tricking ourselves into thinking we are making a healthy, educated choice. When, in REALITY, we are opting for a fast, toxic substitute to the REAL thing that only makes us LOOK and FEEL like we are doing well. There is no such thing as a “baby” carrot. They are not even real!

This is OUR life, America. We are constantly opting for a cheap, toxic substitute because we are unwilling to stop our frenetic lives for a moment and do the heavy lifting. And, really, the heavy lifting isn’t even that heavy! Do you know how long it takes to peel a carrot? THREE SECONDS. I timed it. For three seconds, we are willing to sell out our health and ingest toxins, just so we can check off the next thing on our to-do list THREE SECONDS sooner.

“We are a mess and we are sacrificing quality for quantity every, single day.”

And it’s not just the carrots, trust me. Look at YOUR life. Our schedules are over-filled to that point that our priorities are upside down. We have no time for family dinners, game nights or REAL conversations. We replaced these things with tv dinners, fast food, television and texting. We fill our lives with clubs, sports, kids’ activities and technology and we are become zombies in the midst of this one amazing life we have been given. Look at who we are becoming as a country–from rampant obesity, to presidential candidates that are corrupt cartoon characters. We spew mean things anonymously all over the internet instead of creating teams and real solutions to solve global problems. We’d rather inhale a drive thru crap burger in the front seat while we continue on to our next agenda item, than STOP, plan, connect and nurture. We are a mess and we are sacrificing quality for quantity every, single day.

I have a challenge for you this week: STOP BEING BUSY. Literally, sit down and cancel all that stuff you are running to and from after work. Unless your kid is a soccer prodigy, one week of missed practices won’t hurt her. SLOW DOWN. Breathe. Re-connect. Peel REAL carrots.

You are asleep at the wheel of your life and you are missing it — ALL. OF. IT.

Wake up.