“Hurry…we’ve got 3 hours to get to the campground so we can enjoy the long weekend!” was routinely uttered as I tried to usher the family out the door and into the truck to start our long weekend camping trip. Keeping bathroom stops to a minimum allowed us to have an extra 15 minutes at the campground. An. Extra. Fifteen. Minutes.
The reward of those 15 minutes was far outweighed by enough stress to shave 15 hours off my life!
I told myself that almost every camping trip but I still could not slow down until I got to where I was going. (I was fortunate enough to have a family that knew what was coming and grinned and bared it.) That all changed when I started towing a travel trailer.
I was forced to drive slower because I was towing a 32’ travel trailer. Not only was the travel trailer dangerous at higher speeds, but the gas mileage was cut in half just to get that extra 10 MPH. So I took my time…and loved it!
The drive was far less stressful and I was much more willing to stop to get food and not eat on the road. That made for a happier family! Not to mention, I didn’t have to wind down once we got there; I just slipped into the happy place!
That lesson in patience should not be lost on this one task. By taking the required time to complete other tasks and focusing on the process, you will be present more often and there is a lot of joy in being present because that is when you are truly alive!
When you rush, you are focused on the future and the feeling you will have at some future point in time but at the expense of the present. There is a lot to see and be in the here and now. There are birds to watch, flowers to smell, dogs to pet (and cats!), kids to talk to, and people to see!
Like seedlings growing into tall trees, leaves changing color and falling to the ground, clouds moving across the sky, and canyons being carved by a flowing river, there is a process that takes time. But the beauty is in that process so take the time to enjoy it!
As Lao Tzu said thousands of years ago, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
-Shay
Be the one who cares because there is no guarantee that anyone else will.
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