Enjoying the Journey

I was standing in the grocery store the other day, waiting for the debit terminal to decide it was ready to accept my card, and I started chatting with the clerk about how impatient most of us are these days.  These are new terminals, and while the old ones were noticeably slow, these are even slower.  It seems to take forever from the cashier entering the payment type, to the terminal actually asking for your card.  It's probably a grand total of 7 to 10 seconds, in actuality, but as I stood there chatting about it, I realized that I comment on this every week.  And it made me start to think about how impatient we are these days.  How we rush from place to place, errand to errand, home to job to kids' events and back again.

Computers and technology were supposed to make our lives easier.  But in fact I think what they have done is make us expect everything to move faster, take less time, so we can do more. And more. And end up rushing from place to place, complaining about waiting 5 seconds for a transaction to process.

Several months ago, I changed jobs, and shed a pile of stress in the process.  More recently, I have made a conscious decision to slow down in other areas of my life.  No more rushing out the door in the morning to get to work 5 minutes earlier.  No speeding down the highway in a mad rush to get somewhere on time.  If I have to leave a bit earlier and that means that I don't have time to wash the dishes first, or I don't get a chance to sew that last seam, that's OK. Everything does not have to be done today.  I can do what I have time for, leave myself enough time to get places without rushing, and what I don't get to today will keep until tomorrow.

As a result, I find myself enjoying the journey more.  Both literally and figuratively.  I can enjoy the brilliant sunshine as I drive, because I'm not checking my watch and fretting about being late.  I can stay and chat with a cashier or a friend, and not worry that I'm going to be late for something else.  I can sit a watch my cats sleep.  And I can enjoy each day as it comes, without wishing it away in a mad rush to get to the next stop.