Phone In The Fridge = Time To Slow Down

5:30 am  Alarm goes off.  Let the dogs out.  Feed the dogs. Feed the bird.  Do the chores.  Hurry to get ready for work.  Rush around and leave for work.  Work, work, work.

12:00 pm  Go to lunch with my husband.  No – show an apartment to prospective tenant’s family. 

12:30 pm  Now rush to lunch with my husband.  Rush back to office to leave for a meeting with Congressman, Steve Womack.

1:00 pm  Hurry to 1:15 meeting.  Wait for 1:15 meeting that doesn’t start until after 1:30.  Great meeting.  Hurry back to the office.  Work, work, work. 

4:30 pm  Rush home.  Exhausted but much that needs to be done.  Rush, hurry, rush…

8:45 pm  Go to the truck to look for phone that I must have left there after lunch with husband because I’ve not seen it since.  Think, think, think …

9:00 pm  Rush back to the office.  Open fridge where lunch leftovers were placed.  Remove phone from on top of takeout box.  Rush home.

Do you ever wonder where everyone is going in such a hurry?  A few weeks ago I was pulled over for going too fast.  I didn’t even realize that I was speeding.  (Why in the world they feel the need for 40 mph there is beyond me.)  I was just going on auto pilot at the normal speed of my day.  Too fast!  Every day now when I reach that same spot I slow down but the people behind me, who obviously have never been stopped for speeding through there, ride my bumper and/or pass me, desperately in a hurry to get to something that must be very important. 

I am reminded of a young child anxiously requesting that her Daddy “Come here, Quick!!”  The parent told her, “Just a minute, Honey.”  The child responded “You’re gonna miss it.”  Joining the child, he experienced one of the most beautiful sunsets he had ever seen.   Some things in life are worth rushing for but how do we know when it’s time to rush and when it’s time to slow down?   Only you can know what is worth the anxiety that rushing causes.

 Are you in a hurry to nowhere?  What are you going to do when you get there?  Does all the rushing to get there make you too tired to enjoy the event itself?  I don’t have the answers to these questions.

The next time you feel the need to rush off to do something, ask yourself “What will I miss by being late?”  “What will I gain by rushing?”  In the case of the Daddy and daughter above, the time spent with the child is worth it all, even if the sky had not been brilliantly painted.  In the case of my being stopped for speeding, it could have cost me a lot.  To the nice officer I say “Thanks”!

Now that I’ve found my phone, I can finish this blog, rush to do the laundry, pick up around the house and hurry off to bed.  Did I not learn anything today???