Leisure - a luxury in modern life !!!

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can,
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

When I read this poem by W.H.Davies in class 5 for the first time, it seemed like hogwash to me. Wherever I looked, I saw people with time and leisure. So where were the busy people? I hail from a small town in India where people always went home for lunch and also had a post lunch siesta. Holidays were plentiful and work or school was just a few minutes away. People could afford to go and come to weddings or other social functions for days. They took long holidays each year. And as far as I have known, it has not made them lazy or poor.

I understood the real meaning of this poem years later when I got married and moved to Mumbai. My uncle lives in Mumbai and as far as I can remember, I have visited their family with my parents many times. But even as a child, I disliked the fast life and constricted space. I would pine to get back to my sleepy little town. Long to play in the streets and playgrounds. But moving to Mumbai was like being hit by a train. This time I was to call it my home. I was suddenly surrounded by millions of people. There was no respite from the noise of the busy city. Even at home, voices and sounds of construction filtered in from the paper thin walls. Outings had to planned according to the rush hour times. Even visits to my brother's home would entail travelling for 1-2 hours. It was a relief that my husband had a motorbike or I would have had a nervous breakdown trying to get onto the public transport.

I am not lazy but constant activity without solitude tires my soul and in Mumbai, for the entire 2.5 years that I lived there, I could not find a moment's respite. Then we moved to Beijing and it was the same story again. People everywhere, construction going on at all hours [even at night], noisy public transport and then it snowed. Beijing's snow doesn't take time to turn into slush but those first few hours when the beautiful flakes decend from the sky like Angels, transform this ancient, grimy city into a white, quiet wonderland. Luckily my first snowfall was on a Saturday morning. I was in bed with the curtains drawn, just waking up, but suddenly I could feel something was different. Then I realized it was the quiet. The feeling of a city coming to a standstill. The constant traffic noise of the third ring road had hushed. The construction near our building had stopped. This felt strange, this quiet, after so many years that I just closed my eyes and savored it for a while. Then I got up and looked out of the window and lo behold! The city was covered in a white blanket and on this cold, white morning even the cabbies and the construction workers were huddling inside their blankets. It felt wonderful. Like a delicious icecream that you know is going to melt but you enjoy every lick.

My point in telling all this is that now a days wherever I see, I see people rushing to get somewhere, busy all the time, running forever. And just looking at them tires me. I long for those long summer afternoons when I did nothing but lay under the fan and read my favorite books. Life has become so full of care. There are a hundred chores to be done, bills to be paid, emails to be answered, shopping to be done etc. etc. etc. And this is only for me - a homemaker who does not work. There is a saying in Gujarati 'Pai ni paidash nahi ane ghadi ni navrash nahi' It means that though I do not go to work or do not earn, I do not have time. I do not like this. I want to change but do not know how. Even change will take a lot of preplanning! Why do we need so many things to be happy? Why do we have to rush all day? Why are the days becoming short but not the list of chores? Why does the weekend zip by? Why? Why? Why?

Sometimes I think maybe I am the defective one because I have friends who work and manage homes at the same time. Can someone please give me some tips to de-clutter my life? Please teach me to still my mind and not worry so much. Please teach me stand and stare...again !!!