Coming out of a reception at a New York City
hotel, my wife, Ruth, and I found it was raining
hard, a soaking downpour. We tried in vain
to get a taxi, and considered taking a bus, but
would have been drenched getting to it.
Then I remembered a similar situation when I had
practiced intensive positive thinking and
immediately a taxi had pulled up. So I
started thinking positively, hoping the same
thing would happen again.
Along came an old horse-drawn hansom cab, one of
those that take tourists around the Central Park
area. The driver, perched on the high
outside seat of this ancient conveyance, had on
a great sou'wester. The rain was coursing
down it in rivulets and dropping from his rubber
hat.
I turned to Ruth and said, "We've been here
twenty-five minutes waiting for a taxi.
What do you say we take this carriage?"
"Oh, yes, let's," she said, getting
in.
The driver tucked us in with a big robe.
We started off. The windows of the old
vehicle rattled. They were the kind of
windows that stubbornly drop down when you try
to pull them up shut.
Noting the tufted upholstery, I remembered
admiringly, "I haven't been in one of these
things since I was a boy." But
moments later I continued. "This old
hack will never get us home. Think of it,
all the way to 84th Street at this pace!"
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However, we gradually adjusted to the
pace. We plodded along slowly to the
pleasant clop-clop-clop of the horse's
hoofs through the rainy streets. Taxis and
cars going the same way sped past us.
We proceeded north on Park Avenue. Every
so often the horse would trot for a few minutes,
then walk slowly. As I sat back in the
ancient vehicle, rain beating against the
window, a feeling of relaxation came over me.
It was the slowest trip to 84th Street I have
ever made, but by all odds, the most
pleasant. You couldn't hurry, so all sense
of haste was laid aside.
At last we arrived. As I paid the man, I
said, "I've sure enjoyed the ride.
How old is this hack?"
"It's a real antique," he answered
cheerfully. "Older than I am.
But," he added, "you had a leisurely,
slow, unhurried drive, didn't you?"
"It was indeed all that!" I
said. "I never knew one could be so
relaxed in New York traffic."
We live in a tense, hard-driving generation,
thinking we just have to get there in a
hurry. Why, I'll never know. And
it's wonderful what a little slowing down can
do.
We don't need a horse-drawn carriage to slow the
pace; there are other ways. The trick is
to break our rhythm. One way might be to
try walking to Grandma's house with the family,
instead of taking the car. Or try making a
real homemade cake, instead of using a
"mix." We might take time to go
through the family photo album slowly, reliving
the pleasant moments; or take the long way to
the store one day, stopping at points of
interest, looking for things we never
particularly noticed before.
Breaking the pattern of rush, rush, rush can
restore our bodies and our minds and can bring
an oasis of healing calm in the midst of stress.
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By
slowing down and relishing the unfolding of every experience, you
aren’t choosing to be less accomplished or productive than others.
You’re choosing to be accomplished and productive in ways they may
not even understand. You’re choosing to change what’s within
your
own heart and mind, thereby becoming a part of the solution rather
than a part of the problem. By no longer rushing through,
you’re choosing
to stop focusing so much of your energy on the wanting and yearning,
the wishing it was done, the frustration with what hasn’t happened
yet; and
to make, instead, the most of every experience as it unfolds at its
own pace.
Nea Justice
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And so taking
the long way home through the market I slow my pace
down. It doesn't come naturally. My legs are programmed to trot
briskly and my arms to pump up and down like pistons, but I force
myself to stroll past the stalls and pavement cafes. To enjoy just
being somewhere, rather than rushing from somewhere, to somewhere.
Inhaling deep lungfuls of air, instead of my usual shallow breaths.
I
take a moment to just stop and look around me. And smile to myself.
For the first time in a long time, I can, quite literally, smell the
coffee.
Alexandra Potter
The Two Lives of Miss Charlotte Merryweather |
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