“Where are you going in such a hurry?” was probably one of the top 5 phrases thrown at me in my youth. I don’t know why I was always in a rush. I mean, I finished first in the all-important sibling polls week after week. Maybe because I was the first one out of the gate, beating my twin sister by 3 minutes only ‘cause she was probably trying to tell me to slow down and be careful before we hurtled into the doctor’s hands and thrust our way into this amazing world.

I recall countless family dinners where my father would tell me to slow down. I am eternally grateful for the patience of my father who long ago showed me that, rather than raising an angry fist at me to emphasize his point of slowing down- he would gently raise his hand and almost slow the air particles down in front of me to make his point clear. Slow down.

If we want to be truly grateful, and truly able to see the good in all things so that we can find clarity and understand that everything is exactly where it is supposed to be when it is supposed to be there- then we have to slow down. From now on, I think I am going to try and really slow down. No, not “stop and smell the roses” slow down. Hell, my allergies won’t let me do that. (See- we always got to adapt). But like really, really slow down. I am going to try like hell to slow down like when I drove a school bus down a snow covered icy hill and needed all of my body weight to push the brake to slow down that cheese box bus full of a screaming soccer team.

Author’s note: Yes. We slowed down. No, the indecisive dog did not survive. Long story. Another blog, another time. Today it’s about slowing down.

When my daughter and I (in a hurry) grabbed Wally, his leash, her backpack and tried to head up to school this morning…you know what happened? Well, we crossed the street (in a hurry) and found ourselves face to fence to face with a barking dog twice Wally’s size. So we stumbled faster up the street. Then…as we gathered our composure we realized that (in our rush) she had forgotten the 2020 accessory of the year- her mask for school. Naturally we had to turn around and (hurry) back to the house to get her mask. But, not so fast my friend… because more drama was on the way…due to the 87 pound backpack kids have to carry these days, I was the one schlepping the backpack and had given the leash to my daughter, so next…Wally wildly veers (in a hurry) into thorny bushes and YUP, now we had a bleeding finger and a mask- less (horror of horrors) 5th grader, a barking dog and a stumbling guy all rushing back to square one. Wait- that bloody finger and no mask might make a great Halloween costume? But I digress.

You know what led to that self-inflicted chaos? We did not slow down. I would get into how the night before I was in a rush to slice bread for my continuously consuming teenage boy and nearly severed my finger off. But then you would be thinking, damn if he cut his finger off last night we wouldn’t have to read this drivel.

So slow down. Everyone is where they are supposed to be. Everything has its time. And there ain’t a thing we can do about it. But keep smiling and hope for the best.

Thanks for coming!