A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

It is good to come outside every day, even if only for a few minutes. If nothing else, you might actually get some fresh air moving through your lungs.

This does not have to be a big deal, even a few minutes is better than sitting looking at the same old, same old.

So far, Toronto has not had the usual Winter. In other words one or two snow falls worthy of the name did not drop enough on the city to let the snow freeze. Even worse yet, is the all too familiar winter experience of having half melted slush splash you or soak your feet when you step into it. 

The absence of what winter usually brings us, has many of us thinking that if this is what global warming will mean for our winter, a lot of us won’t mind it much.

The point however, is not, at the first sign of cold, to hunker down and decide that the next time anyone is going to see us is when summer returns. At the very least, this is antisocial. More importantly, it is unhealthy.

Man is a social animal and wants, maybe even instinctively knows, that he probably needs, to be around other human beings pretty well every day. Were it not so, a lot of us would have moved to uninhabited islands long ago or live alone, far from the rest of our fellows. But we don’t do we; the first chance we get, we head for where other men and women are congregating.

Complain though some of us may, it is a very rare person who does not like to be somewhere other people are most of the time.

In fact, I doubt though that there is much historical evidence at any time in human history of isolation being preferred to some form of congregation and communal living.

I have had to work hard on this attitude within myself, since hibernation in cold weather comes a lot more naturally than forcing myself outside as I have taught myself to do. In cold weather, I have to admit that sometimes it takes a bit of willpower to don the warm clothing we will need and get further than sticking our head out of the front door.

However, I have personally found that strangely enough, once we get to this point and start moving toward whatever activity we hear or see in our area, I think most of us will likely derive some comfort and reassurance that life is moving forward and that our gloom and doom was perhaps a bit too heavy.

I suggest if your life has started to seem like the same old, same old, you sally forth and take a look around at the rest of the world. If nothing else you can get a couple of breaths of fresh air.

More likely, after you have made even a small effort to get outside, you are almost certain to see or do something just a little differently than before.

With far less effort than you think, you will, at the very least, have moved out of a potential rut of self absorption and boredom. You might even have moved ahead with a clearer head and a few new ideas that just weren’t coming to you until you made a little effort to change the scenery.