I Have Decided to Quit Speeding

I have learned to quite speeding through life, always trying to do too many things too quickly, without taking the time to enjoy each day's doings. I think I always thought of real living as being high. I don't mean on drugs-I mean real living was falling in love, or when I got my first job, or when I was able to help somebody, or watch my baby get born, or have a good morning of really good writing. In between the highs I was impatient-you know how it is-life seemed so DAILY.

Now I love the dailiness. I enjoy washing dishes. I enjoy cooking, I see my father's roses out the kitchen window, I like picking beans. I notice everything-birdsongs, the clouds, the sound of wind, the glory of sunshine after two weeks of rain. These things I took for granted before.

When I stop speeding through life, I find the joy in each day's doings, in life that cannot be bought, but only discovered, created, savored, and lived.

~Olive Ann Burns, Taken from Mitten Strings from God: Reflections for Mothers

Sometime, somehow, I decided to stop speeding. I hit the brakes and decided to stop. Hear God. Savor my family. Love on people and covet stillness.


I am so grateful for the opportunity to work part-time, but even with part-time (with my personality), I work full-time. I went back to work from summer break last week. From the moment that alarm went off on that first Monday, it was full speed ahead. Work all day, computer and work bag work all night. During this busy week, a former boss asked me to come and get paid extra to do professional learning at her school. My heart skipped. "She wants me?" My driven, ambitious brain thought, "YES, YES, YES!" This opportunity would equal career connections, opportunity, and just generally more, more, more.


That my friends, is a problem because that is not me anymore. I choose to slow this life down. Our culture suggests that productivity is the key to happiness. It says that bigger is better and that more is preferred. I know better.


In reflecting on all this today, I made a decision. I reminded myself again, that for me, my family, my friends and my faith, I choose not to speed.

I'll probably have to remind myself again tomorrow.