Slow Down a Bit

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've
been, but also where you are going.  Life is not a race,
but a journey to be savored each step of the way.
-Nancy Simms


I've known many people in my life who never, ever seem to notice or appreciate the scenery of their lives.  They spend their time rushing from place to place, thing to thing, person to person, and they don't allow themselves time to slow down and enjoy that which they have or the places where they are.  Instead, they just rush through things, and their minds are never on getting the most out of the present moment because their focus is on just getting to the next moment.  When they get there, though, the same thing happens--they ignore what's in their lives right now because they're impatient to get to what's going to be in their lives tomorrow or next week.

Try it in your car sometime--I'm sure that most of us already have.  Try to get somewhere fifty miles away as fast as you can, and see how much of your focus is on stop signs and traffic lights and the other traffic on the road.  Then try the same trip with no hurry and see what you notice that you didn't see before.  When we're focused on hurrying, we tend to hyperfocus on the road that will get us where we're going, and all of the scenery goes by without us ever noticing it.

I notice this most often in my life when I have to re-take a certain trip that I took more quickly before.  All of a sudden, I see things that I never would have guessed were on the route--parks and ponds and restaurants and trees and flowers that I simply didn't notice the first time around.  When I do this, I feel somewhat sad that I kind of "wasted" a trip, though I am thankful for the second go-round.

So what do we do about this?  One thing that I'm always careful to do is to leave early.  If I think that a trip is going to take half an hour, then I give myself 40-45 minutes to get to where I need to go.  I do this, of course, whenever I can--it's not always possible.  I also try to take alternate routes, especially if interstate highways are involved--scenery is so often lacking interest on the major roads.  I love to take side roads and routes that are less crowded.

If I'm going somewhere that it won't matter if I'm five or ten minutes late, or if circumstances force me to leave later than I want, then I still try to take my time.  In all my life, being late has really affected me negatively only once or twice, and the one time it had a drastic effect, it wasn't my fault--the road sign indicating that I needed to turn wasn't there, so I ended up getting slightly lost.  In the long run, though, even that negative outcome turned out to be for the best.  So I've learned that there really isn't as much pressure to hurry as I've often thought there was, and that taking my time and relaxing and not worrying about being late is a much more pleasant way to take my little journeys in life--as well as a much more pleasant way to take the great journey of life itself.

Can you slow down?  Can you take more time or give yourself more time to enjoy the beauty and wonder of the world we live in, and the life you're living?  If we're able to do so, then one of the most important things that we'll learn is that by slowing down, we're improving not only our own lives, but the lives of the other people in our lives.  We'll have more time to spend with them, and it can be a higher quality time, when we're not constantly looking at our watches and hurrying to get to our next commitment.

Slowing down can be an art, and my hope for you is that you're able to take up the art, make it your own, and apply it to your life.  We weren't put on this planet to hurry from thing to thing--rather, we were given the many gifts that we have in order to enjoy them and to relish them, and enjoyment takes time and effort.  Give yourself the gift of the time to enjoy things by not rushing everywhere you go, and you'll find that your life is brighter and more fulfilling, and that your relationships are stronger and more interesting.  Give yourself a gift today, and slow yourself and your life down to a manageable speed.  you deserve it.