Last month while shopping at a local vintage and eclectic shop, I gave my credit card to the woman behind the counter to ring up my purchases.
I have the new chip card, so she inserted it into her machine. She commented that she wasn’t so sure about this new “chip thing” as it seems to take longer to go through and process.
I agreed at first thinking about those times I’m in a hurry. But then I changed my tune. I said, “Perhaps it’s a way of getting us to slow down more. So many of us always seem to be in a hurry. Maybe it’s a good thing.”
She smiled. “What a great way to look at it,” she said. “I like that.”
This morning I was reading a favorite blog and the writer, Jon, talked about climate change and how he is learning to live with it and understand it. Just like we are experiencing here, they have had a hot and humid summer. Though they have had much more rain making it feel quite tropical, while here we haven’t had much rain.
I realized at the beginning of the heat wave earlier this season how I’ve been fighting with, and not accepting how I feel in the heat, which I experienced last summer also. While I once loved it and couldn’t get enough of it, my body, and really, my hormones are a changin’, so it’s made it challenging for me to be in the heat for too long. And I was fighting it every step of the way.
But I don’t want to fight it anymore. I’m plumb tired of wishing for what was. So I’ve been moving into an acceptance of this which means doing things differently – like watering my new gardens early in the morning, or later in the evening. And moving slower when I have to be outside. And guess what happens when I open to this new way? I see a sky I’d never seen before, I hear sounds I’d not heard before, I hear more silence (especially in early morning), and the best part? My mind is more at rest, instead of being in a state of wishful thinking and constant battle of wanting it be like it used to.
When I find myself trying to revisit the “way it was” I silently repeat a favorite quote of mine by author Tasha Tudor, “I don’t believe in hurry.” This is a practice for me, and one I truly want more of in my life, but sometimes old habits are hard to break. And in a world where many believe in speed, I can sometimes find myself getting sucked in without realizing it.
And my Lab, Kylie is such a great example for me. She will be eleven in two months and moves slower these days too. Years ago she loved to hang out in the driveway overlooking the neighborhood for hours on end. But these days she is more content doing her civic duty of making sure all is well in the neighborhood from the spot inside the front door with the air conditioning on. And I’ve not once heard her complain about what was and now is! She simply adjusted and accepted.
But I’m thankful to be more open to how my mind works these days and the challenge of seeing things in a new way. And I also remind myself that I am a work in progress and to be gentle with myself. Be gentle.
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