Hurry Up And Get Nowhere

Or slow down and get groovy...

There is more to life than increasing its speed -Gandhi

Getting there is not the point.

I know that is not how we have been trained. We have been trained to hurry. Hurry through school, and hurry to get a job.

Then, it’s on to more hurry. Get the house, get the family, get the money.

For what reason are we hurrying?

Why do we believe that getting to the end of something quickly is the point when everything in nature and life points to a different way of living?

Take the universe as an example. We know that it is always expanding, never stopping to say, “I made it!”

Never in a hurry. Not like us.

Have you ever driven down the street with a car on your bumper, trying to get you to go faster and faster so they can get where they are going sooner?

Maybe you have been driving that car. Why, what’s the hurry?

What does the hurry-and-get-there state of mind cause? Stress.

We feel as if we have to control things, get things, make things right, put things in order, and then all will be well. Does that actually work?

We know it doesn’t. But the hurrying habit is hard to break.

In one of my exercise classes, people pop down into a squat and back up again as if that will prove that they are doing it right. But they aren’t. They are missing the whole reason for the exercise.

The exercise’s purpose is accomplished by how slowly you go down and how slowly you rise with the correct placement.

As in life, it’s how much attention and care are brought to the moment that brings results.

In Taiji, we learn that the movement never stops at the end of the step but breathes and continues into the next with a constant flow.

It’s the same as in dance. Watch a talented dancer, and you see that although they pass through a movement or pose, it’s never to get there and stay but to build on it and continue into the next.

Even in stillness, there is an ongoing movement, but there is no hurry.

Without being slow, deliberate, and present in every moment, we have no time to be aware of what we are thinking, how we are standing, or what is happening within.

We have no time to watch a flower bloom and feel at one with it. We miss all the pleasures of living to get somewhere and be done with something.

The person in the car trying to get me to go faster was missing everything.

She missed the new buds on the tree, the feel of the road without ice bumps from winter, the hawk sitting on the tree branch, the joy of driving, and the freedom of movement.

She could have missed the squirrel running across the road or me stopping at a stop sign.

It is not getting to the end that counts.

It is the process of enjoying life, reveling in and creating beauty, enjoying companionship, and appreciating nature. That is what we are here to do.

We can choose to live each day more like a work of art, help someone just for the joy of it, and notice the value of each moment.

Or we could keep hurrying to get somewhere and miss the whole thing.

Next time you find yourself in a hurry, ask yourself why.

That question could take some time to answer. Don’t worry. There is no hurry to get to it.

PS

Do you need a little musical help? Sing along! Go ahead, you know it!

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