In general, Americans are well known for their tendency to hustle and bustle; successful business people and entrepreneurs often rising before the sun to get a head start on a long day at work, returning home only just in time for a quick dinner.

I’ve grown up bombarded with the saying, “The early bird gets the worm.” I’ve caught myself even promoting this ideology to students and friends alike, suggesting that they should complete assignments early, try in vain to wake up before the sun and complete all work for the day and then some.

The fact of the matter is, given a lifelong enforcement to do, do, do, even when work is done early I usually interpret it as a lucky break to get ahead on the next task rather than stop for a moment and breathe.

Here is the fault in this mentality—what is the worm? No one ever makes us stop to question what is it that we are waking up and fighting to find. If I never define the worm, how do I know when I finally have it?

In a work-centered culture moving into the fall season, a time for harvest and to wrap up all of our hard work, it’s the perfect time and place to stop and look to our neighbors for some insight. In sunny South Florida, I have the pleasure of experiencing an extremely diverse environment with many people from Latin American countries who can teach us Americans a thing or two.

Latin Americans are often known for their siestas and tendency to work to live rather than the North American habit of living to work. We associate many Hispanic and European cultures with wine-filled afternoons at a family’s home, relishing in a long lunch on the patio under vine covered gazebos before returning to work.

After all, there will always be work to do. We would do well to remember that sometimes the days we have to spend with family and friends on this Earth are limited. People will come and go from our lives, moments are fleeting, and money will be a sorely quiet and unrewarding companion in our old age.

For this reason, I promote a switch from our hustle-inducing English saying about birds and worms to something much more supportive of a mindful existence in this single lifetime. There is a saying in Spanish, “No por mucho madrugar, se amanece más temprano,” which essentially means that no matter what time we rise, the dawn will break no sooner.

All things will come in their time, and that time will come irrelevant to our plans and attempts to manipulate the world around us. We should enjoy the life we are given and the good things that each day brings, for they will come and go in their own time whether we take them or not.

This fall season, take a moment to honor our ancestors who worked hard so we may have a good and vibrant life. The day of the worm is dead. So on this Day of the Dead, I recommend taking a moment in reverence for those who have passed and set forth a plan for how to make the most of their life. Let the worms go to the birds. I’ll be enjoying the Florida sun, sipping on Spanish wine and striving to live at the speed of los muertos.

 

 

Love elephant and want to go steady?

Sign up for our (curated) daily and weekly newsletters!

 

 

Editor: Travis May

Photo: Author’s Own