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Today's
quotation:
There's
an old Italian proverb: Qui va piano, va sano, va lentano. That means: "The person who goes quietly, goes with health
and
goes far." Hurrying up and using a lot of shortcuts
doesn't get us very far at all.
Fred Rogers
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Today's
Meditation:
When we
hurry things, we take a lot of unnecessary risks. We
risk making mistakes that we wouldn't make if we were to
take our time; we risk missing out on wonderful things
that surround us as we hurry past them; we risk lowering
the quality of whatever it is that we're doing or making;
we risk needlessly raising our stress level and the
tension we feel-- which can lead us to say things we don't
mean to say and do things we normally wouldn't do.
Avoiding
hurry takes work and determination. If we want to
avoid being in a hurry, we have to decide to get ready
earlier. One of the best decisions I've ever made
came a few decades ago, when I decided that if I had to be
somewhere at eight o'clock, for example, I would be ready
at least half an hour early. I don't always live up
to that standard, but usually I do, and I'm much less
stressed when I do so. If I have to be at work at
8:30, I usually try to get where I'm going half an hour
early, and sit down and have a nice relaxing cup of coffee
before I start my day.
We do
a great disservice to life when we live our lives always
in a hurry. And it's unnecessary to be in a hurry
all the time. If our jobs cause us to always hurry,
perhaps it's time to change jobs. If our own
procrastination causes us times of stress because we have
to hurry to make up for lost time, then perhaps it's time
to start learning and practicing strategies for leaving
procrastination behind. Life rarely forces us to
hurry; rather, our own decisions about how we deal with
time cause us to be in situations where we have to hurry
if we want to avoid negative results.
Does
a rainstorm force us to hurry inside, or is it our
unwillingness to get wet? (And lightning is another
story!) Are we hurrying to work because we're late,
or because we decided to spend too much time doing
something else? The ways that we use and spend time
are up to us, and if they're causing us to be in a hurry
all the time, then it's probably time to slow down, relax,
and truly notice all around us instead of hurrying past it
all.
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