You Think?

How much time do you spend thinking?  I know that as a consultant in the USA I frequently felt as if I was too busy working to think.  What a luxury to spend time just thinking.  Considering options and alternatives.  Mental problem solving.  Daydreaming, even.  Wool gathering, as my grandfather, Fred, called it.

In Samoa the pace is slow.  There is ample time to think.  To cogitate.  To poke around at ideas.  To chew on concepts.  At first I found it frustrating.  Let’s get on with things, let’s DO something.  Now, I enjoy the thinking time.

On Saturday it took me 4 ½ hours to do my shopping.  I bought carrots, bok choy, squash, a whole tuna (for my family, who gave me a piece which I ate raw) and an apple.  4 ½ hours.  It involved 4 buses.  And waits of over 30 minutes for each bus.  That gave me time to think.  

As a consultant, I flew a lot.  I’ve flown over 1 million miles on Delta alone.  I flew almost every week for almost 20 years before coming to Samoa.  That means that I experienced delays, cancelled flights and all the other inconveniences that come with air travel.  What I neglected to notice was that it also gave me the gift of time to think.  Instead, I did email, work, phone calls or reading.  I rarely just sat still and thought.  All those hours wasted in Sky Clubs around the world.

Sometimes I think deep thoughts.  Meaning of life stuff.  Sometimes I think about what to make with the carrots, squash and bok choy.  Many times I ask questions that I can’t answer.  Where does wind come from?  I have a basic understanding of weather and what causes it, but want to learn more.  Today, for example, a squall came up as I was thinking while waiting for a bus.  The winds were intense, probably at least 50 mph.  They lasted only a few minutes.  How does that happen?  Why does some poop float and not flush?  Is thinking about the mundane wrong?

How often do you think?  What do you think about?  When you are in that perfect state at night between consciousness and sleep, what goes through your mind?  Do you take time to think throughout the day?  Or just wrangle the time and get through it?  What do you think about…?