Slow down

I chose this topic because, as I've said before, I walk a lot and sometimes drive around Weyburn and I've noticed that the drivers act as though they are always in some kind of hurry. Government Road is like the Indy 500 lately.

Just because some of us have lived in bigger cities (where it's always a race for the finish line) does not mean we should be driving like that here. Remember, pedestrians have the right of way and our speed limit is 40 km/h unless otherwise posted. I hope the city never changes this, because why should those who go 60 anyway get to pay a smaller fine? Maybe they speed because they don't care about human life as much as they care about "winning" the driving game.

There is no winning in driving except to get from point A to point B without killing anybody.

This week alone, while driving my car, I have had to swerve out of the way of texting drivers at least a handful of times. If something is important enough to text 'right now', it is important enough to pull over and text responsibly. If it's not urgent, it can wait until it is safe to stop.

In most cases, what some people think is urgency is actually just self-importance.

If it is a matter of life or death, no text is going to make a difference. Phoning 9-1-1 makes more sense. Woe to you who text and drive and woe to you who do not stop when you are supposed to! Karma is much bigger than you and your pathetic ego. You don't want to mess with your negligence coming back around to you!

Woe to you, but grace over you as well - may the lessons be gentle. May the innocent ones be spared and may innocent perception return to those who have lost it.

I walk places because you get to know things better when you have more time to take them in. Life goes by quickly enough as it is. I like noticing the hoar frost in winter and the post-rain worms in spring, the flowers and bees in summer and the leaves in the autumn. I may be a romantic with an inclination toward nature, but every human has it in them to appreciate the truly finer things in life.

If you are too good for Mother Nature, she will be too good for you too!

You can't push a river. Not everything in life happens in the timing we think it should. Sometimes, what we want so badly, that which we pray for every day, is waiting for us to be ready to receive it. We think we should just snap our fingers and what we want should appear. But that mentality is juvenile and it is not beneficial for our growth. All good things take time. Ask any parent who waited longer than they wanted to for their child to arrive. They will tell you that child was well worth the wait.

When I was a child, I was in a big hurry to grow up. When someone my mother would meet in the mall would say, "Oh, is this your little girl?", I was the five-year-old who, would respond, "I'm NOT LITTLE!"

Maybe I just knew that I was here to find my soul mate and have children and do important work to help heal some of the bad decisions made by other humans. I really wanted to be in charge of my own self. I'm still learning how to do that, but that's another column entirely.

For every thousand people who make the world a worse place to live, there is one person who makes it better. But thank goodness that caring individuals are a million times more powerful than the jerks are!

The only thing we should try to speed up more often is our heart rate. Interestingly, this leads to a longer life. What a lovely paradox!

It's a simple matter of choice to slow down what we can in life. We may not be able to stop the passing of time, but we can delay aging by taking better care of ourselves and by speaking positivity over our bodies. Instead of saying, "I am getting old", say, "I'm growing wiser every day!"

Practice levity and conscious breathing. Take advantage of gaps in your schedule to just be still and listen. In these spaces between, where nobody can have a piece of you, you might just find the time you thought you were missing.