Simpler Times

I got up dark and early this morning, I don't know why for I need the rest.
Must have been my internal clock for nowadays, I seem to beat the alarm and rise at around the same time.
Not that I would call that a good thing.
I mean it serves to remind me that I have a routine that revolves around my employment, that my job serves to regulate even my most primitive instincts.
I sure miss the days when I could just wake up at all hours of the day.
Okay, not really.
During those days, back in another life, I wasted a lot of time.
A lot of time.
Now, it seems like all that time I had to waste sure goes by faster.
I get up, blink and then it seems like I'm getting ready to start that routine again.
I have to be careful not to let myself get caught up in a cycle.
Unless it's a bicycle.
I guess that's one of the appeals of cycling. It's sort of simple, elemental, basic. All you need is a bike and some roads or trails and there you go.
Okay, you sort of need like a patch and pump just in case, other than that you can pretty much go off the grid so to speak and not have to worry about all the things that make today, well, today.
I was thinking about all this kind of stuff because I found this:



Now I don't surf, but if you live here, you cannot help but be caught up in the culture. I mean Hawaii is all about the ocean, being surrounded and all, and just being here you get this vibe that's hard to resist.
The same vibe I suppose that one gets while watching the sun set in the desert or taking in the majestic scenery in the mountains.
The feeling that sort of makes you feel alive and appreciative of the things around you, the natural things, the things that have been here long before you and will be here long after you.
For a brief moment, you can sense, no, you can feel the world around you and it dawns on you that it's okay that it's not all about you and what happens day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.
Time sort of slows down, almost to a standstill as the realization comes that those waves will keep breaking on the shore, the sun rise and warm your face, the wind will blow through your hair, and at the end, tomorrow is another day.
I'm not sure how life got so complicated. Progress, evolution, growing into responsibilities all have their hand in the things that make up my daily routine.
The endless pursuit of my own happiness sometimes leads me astray, down paths I did not mean to take, towards places I only think I need to be when I the end, I find it was a meaningless detour, a ruse, a manifestation of my overly commercialized imagination.
As a grown up person, I realize now that it wasn't just about my bicycle, the beach and having a dollar in my pocket, but that doesn't mean I don't think about those simpler days.
Bus fare took you to the beach and bus fare took you back home and in between you didn't think much about anything else except what time the sun was going down.
Time seems to to go by so quickly these days, I barely have time to think and well, I just don't seem to have the time.
I'm trying to remember back to those days when time seemed to stand still, you know when five minutes seemed like five hours and I'm trying real hard to remember.
Maybe that's the problem.
I'm trying too hard.
Way back when, it all seemed so simple.