Island Time - The slow down experts - Travel experience for you

Island-time.org - The slow-down experts

Time flies when we are having fun; time is money; it feels like only yesterday when we were 18. Time is our enemy – it brings us closer to death or at least spoils our fun along the way. We live in a furiously fast-paced world: The speed of technological innovation keeps accelerating; our lives keep accelerating right along with it, at work and at home.

We feel like a hamster on a treadmill trying to keep up. During vacations and leisure time, we try to escape and have some fun but eventually we have to return to the dreaded rat-race against time and progress.

Recently, during a huge power outage in the northeastern USA we were able to witness the impact of a sudden halt in the race: There was widespread panic and chaos but there were also many random acts of kindness: people were talking to each other and helping each other.

We try to cope with our lot by dreaming up our next escape to the island, where the clocks are running on island-time, never hurried, no pressure, no problem. We have time to smell the roses, have a leisurely breakfast, talk, be lazy and do absolutely nothing without feeling guilty. Finally, we can dress as we like and be ourselves - if only for a few precious days.

Island-time is slower because islands tend to be isolated from our hectic pace by a protective ring of water. Islanders had to craft creative solutions to everyday challenges because the resources available to them are limited.

On the other hand, this scarcity also makes island-life much simpler in many ways. All of these factors have helped the people who inhabit islands in hanging on to their unique customs and ways of life which are the foundation of their slower-paced lives.

While we fantasize about the island-life, most of us are not seriously considering a permanent move to the island. What we can do, however, is to bring home with us some island-time. We can learn from the islands some of the lessons which apply to our lives without dropping out.

Island-time.org is dedicated to helping you in this process by taking you to some of the best slow-down islands in the world and assisting you in learning their unique lessons, as well as bringing to you via our web site up to date slow-down information and fun, and inviting you to share your own slow-down thoughts and experiences.

A challenge we are facing is that we live in a time of great suspicion towards others who do not share our background. We observe with great alarm that people of the world are increasingly polarized into ethnic and religious groupings.

It is our firm belief that during such a time of crisis it is especially paramount to travel and connect with people of different cultures rather than to succumb to the temptation of cocooning and isolating ourselves from others. We have to reach out to one another and learn from our various cultures and experiences, rather than forcing our beliefs onto others.

Ultimately, we may grow to embrace time as one of our most precious gifts.