I'm just hanging out this afternoon, taking it easy. I had read a blog post a few months ago talking about "the art of doing nothing" and now my wife and I talk about practicing this art with our boys. I sometimes get so distracted with what I'm doing on things like Steemit that I forget to just stop worrying about whether or not my comments got replies or votes. Since late last year I've spent a lot of time playing with cryptocurrencies and there has been more than one situation where it's robbed my thoughts of the quiet I know they need. Every now and then I go through my photo collection to look at some of the life experiences I've had over the last couple of years just to remind me of my decision to focus more on my family. Some of these images are just every day experiences, some of them remind to slow down and some of them just remind me to be in the lives of my sons. Maybe some of these will help you slow down and remember the important things in life.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/111914172206d3d.jpg
This is from my previous job. We got a lot of special edition vehicles there and this was one of the first Hellcat Challengers in the state of New Jersey. I had a lot of fun with some of the cars that came through there.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_0046d94b5.jpg
Every now and then when I'm working on a podcast I can't help but notice how relaxing the environment I'm working in can be. It's not often I manage to capture any of that feeling in an image, but this particular one always reminds me to just stop and enjoy where I am.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_00702c8a1.jpg
A quote from Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I didn't learn until after I had finished reading Walden that it was my grandfather's favorite book. I never got to be close to my grandfather, but learning about this at the time I did gave my soul a bit of peace that I didn't know I needed.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_019801526.jpg
This is actually a picture of what I was looking at in the image of me [here](https://steemit.com/steemit/@robsteady/how-it-feels-when-i-finally-calm-down-and-let-steemit-work-for-me). Black and red were always my favorite colors as a kid, but as I grew up and got in touch with my nature-boy side blue and green took over. This showcases why the change happened.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_0054b046e.jpg
One side of our driveway has tiger lillies running the whole length of one side. I know this is kind of a cliche image but I can't help but notice the beauty of the rain/dew drops on the leaves when I get in the car in the morning.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_0033a8b15.jpg
This is my little guy. My wife (@justicepirate) and I had been talking about doing more family outings with the boys this summer and we hadn't actually scheduled anything yet. One Saturday I decided to hop on the internet and find a zoo in the area and we just hopped in the car and went. It was a pretty awesome experience simply because it wasn't planned. We just went out and had an adventure.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_002490562.jpg
This isn't an image from today, but the weather is the same. We live in a second story apartment and I get this view looking down over the street. It's not the view I would want if I had a choice, but there is something about watching the trees sway and the clouds pass as the cars drive by. Even though I'll be excited when we move to a different apartment, I think I'll end up missing this window.

https://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/07/31/IMG_02176ab8f.jpg
This one is actually from this afternoon. I was just hanging out, browsing Steemit and my bigger mister (I call my sons "the misters", I don't really know why, it just started one day) came over to see what was going on. He started playing around on the tablet, checking if it was charged enough to play a game on it. Something about the view out the window and his being near me just relaxed me and I had to take a shot. This was really the impetus for this post since today was a busy day out and about without really spending time together. Days like today remind me of the words of a great philosopher, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around for a while, you could miss it."