You can also change the pace
After a vacation on my own time and my own terms, the “back to normal” pace for this holiday week quickly dialed up to Hurry - make the most of a circumscribed week’s schedule, get things done before the weather, the houseguests, the kids, the travel, the things of life disrupt expectations. Time is short - there is stuff to do!!
And then, returning late from a series of errands, I found myself anxiously waiting in a line of cars while a young college student stepped into the crosswalk.
Slowly…deliberately…he crossed the street entirely unconcerned with impatiently fidgiting drivers, feet poised over accelerators. He took his right of way without rush, possibly disparagingly rolling his eyes at our productivity-fueled angst. We wanted him to hurry. I wanted him to hurry. And he didn’t.
How annoying! Where’s the magic in that?
Amazingly, it changed my day.
A load of feelings, opinions, and solutions cycled through my brain in that half minute of wait time. And then came remembered scenarios of other times of rush, those frustrating “someone’s breathing down my neck” sensations. And then my own hands-in-the-air surrender to the pointlessness of racing toward uncertain and sometimes ridiculous milestones.
Though I have spent my life striving to excel, to accomplish things in order to move on to more things, I’m not sure I could tell you what I’ve been trying to prove along the way.
But at some point the race to hit certain achievements has started to seem ridiculous. And waiting at that crosswalk, I could clearly see that rushing to sit with an open document, only to wait, again, for the calling of a muse; or hurry to engage in creative play - moving words, images and the like around until they click - for unpredictable seconds or hours or weeks…It makes no sense.
Sure, we can all generate ideas on a timeline, if necessary, but like I observed in a post earlier this year, we are Artists whatever our media or pace. So, Why hurry?
Sometimes, a self-possessed pedestrian is what it takes to remind us that we need not confuse our diligence with haste, nor our intensity with urgency. The magic in my creative life does not hinge on speed, and its success will not necessarily be measured in output. In fact, I value craft and quality far ahead of quantity. My real challenge is to unpack, unclench, unwind, and unhurry.
In your season of holiday or hurry (or holiday hurry), I hope you, too, can find a way to embrace some magical waiting! Check out my most recent seasonal 5-day/5-way challenge - and tell a friend. No rush!
Thanks!!