“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Bertrand Russell

I was sitting outside my new home yesterday (we just moved last week, and we love the new place), watching the world go by.

There were people in cars, in a hurry to get to their next appointment. There were birds flying by, insects just as busy as the people in cars, plants and weeds thriving in the humid Guam climate.

Inside the house, my children were also busy, as ever, making a mess of the house (which my wife and I would soon clean up), getting into things, their natural curiosity overpowering our previous pleas for them not to play with lotion or take things apart.

The sky was slightly overcast and there was a cool breeze, quite strong and pleasant actually.

It’s not often that most of us just sit quietly, and allow the world to pass us by.

Why not?

What is so important that it can’t wait until later? What email must be answered right this moment? Do we really need to read all those articles online, all those messages from others, all those newspapers and magazines? Do we need to have the television and radio and Internet on all the time?

Is life passing us by as we keep our minds super-busy? Are we missing out on the beautiful world around us as we constantly think about the future — what we need to do, our anxieties about what might happen — and the past — what we did wrong, what someone else did to us, what we said, what should have happened?

When was the last time you just sat, and observed? Why not do it today?

“享受的时光并非虚度”——伯特兰·罗素

昨天，我坐在我的新房子外面（上周我们刚搬家，我们都很喜欢这个新地方），看着眼前这个世界匆匆而过。

人们坐在车里，急急忙忙赶赴下一场约会。鸟儿飞过，虫儿也像坐在车里的那些人一样忙碌。在Guam(关岛)潮湿的气候下，花草树木茁壮成长。

房子里，孩子们也忙得很，和往常一样，屋里被弄得乱七八糟（我和妻子一会儿还要打扫清理），对任何事物都感兴趣，他们天生的好奇心让我和妻子实在没办法，丝毫不顾我们之前的告诫，玩洗涤剂，把东西都拆了玩。

天空有些多云，嗖嗖凉风，风力强劲，但确实令人感到舒适。

我们大多数人，都很少能静静地坐下来，看着这个世界，与我们擦身而过。

为什么不能呢？

有什么重要的事不能等会儿再做？什么电子邮件一定要此刻回复？我们真的必须要阅读网上所有的文章，别人发来的所有短信，还有所有的报纸和杂志吗？我们需要一直看电视、听收音机、上网吗？

有没有想过（译者加），当我们的大脑疯狂忙碌的时侯，生活正在我们身边悄然离去？我们不断地思考未来——我们需要做什么，我们担忧可能会发生的事——还有，过去犯下的错误，别人对我们做了什么，我们说了些什么，应该发生些什么——有没有想过，所有的这些，令我们错过了身边美丽的世界？

上一次你坐下来，静观这个世界是什么时候的事了？为什么不今天就付之行动呢？

更多信息请查看英语美文写作