Most of my time recently has been spent billing hours. Any attorney will tell you that the working day is cordoned into 6-minute increments. But the mindset spills sadly over into home life and into the weekend. You become a slave to recording every 6-minute block of your day. Six, twelve, eighteen, twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six, forty-two, forty-eight, fifty-four, an hour.
As a lifelong lover of travel, sports and the outdoors, I spent my downtime at work surfing the web for anything – anything – to pique my interest and jolt my imagination. But the rotation got stale. It was the same websites over and over again, and then back to work. Years went by. And I dreamed of nothing. I just billed hours. Thousands and thousands of hours.
I worked in windowless conference rooms. My skin began to yellow and sag. My eyes sank, and my sockets darkened. I could no longer find anything in common with my colleagues because work had become our only activity. I forgot that outside, there was an… outside.
Then a month ago, I was laid off. That day, at two in the afternoon, I emerged from my law firm and walked outside. I was struck by what I saw. Dozens of people were out and about. (“In the middle of the workday – it’s not even lunch!”) These people were young and old, in groups and alone, reading and chatting and enjoying the sunny autumn afternoon. “Unbelievable. There is still a world out here.”
Since then, I’ve fallen back in love with my old interests. One of my passions is writing. Another is the outdoors. So, this website is meant to inspire daydreams and to incubate ideas. Of course, it’s inspiration of last resort, since it’s always better to enjoy life than to read about enjoying life. So, for those of you paying your dues by performing mind-numbing tasks in the corporate rat race, I hope you enjoy what you read here. And if you happen to love your job, that’s awesome – you have it made. I hope you enjoy what you find here, too. At the very least, perhaps this website can serve as a helpful planning tool for a few weekend trips.
So tomorrow, or maybe even tonight, get outside. Take up a new hobby or enjoy an old one. Become an expert in something. Explore your surroundings. Learn about your community. Bring a loved one. Or meet someone you start to love. After all, it isn’t in here. Life is what’s out there.
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