One guarantee in life is that when you go to the grocery store you're sure to either 1) run into someone you know, or 2) meet a stranger. Last night I decided to take a walk to the grocery store(ipod free!)and ended up having two or three different conversations with strangers. Now this may not sound that odd to people who seek encounters with strangers in the grocery aisle of the opposite sex (or the same) in hopes of a date or people (like my father)who meet someone new everywhere they go. On the flip side, those of us who are used to gluing the ipod headphones to our ears whenever we are alone, for us meeting strangers is a rare and in my opinion, a refreshing feat.
One of my encounters included a man and a woman caught up in a grocery cart traffic jam. I happened to be scrunched up against the side of the aisle, attempting not to knock over the bottles of olive oil and vinegar, when the woman let the man pass through and said "you can go ahead, what's the rush". I thought in my mind, that's right! What IS the rush? I smiled and nodded in agreement as they both passed me by.
For those of us that live in metropolitan areas I don't think I'm alone in saying that we've all observed the peculiar ways in which people rush while they're walking and dart through each other like they have the most important place to be. This occurs at any time of day and also despite how many people are around. I frequently witness one, sole person rushing through an open space, huffing and puffing as if the slightly faster paces will make their day that much better.
I used to walk fast everywhere I went as well. Most of the time I wasn't in a rush, I just did it because I was always thinking 10 or 20 minutes ahead of me. Finally one day I slowed down and decided that " I'll get there when I get there".
I made it my goal to purposely walk at my own pace and to pay more attention to what surrounded me and my feeling in that moment. It's amazing how one simple task can bring a glimpse of peace to one's day. Despite the fear of being late (which is usually not decided by fast paces or slow ones) or missing those 3 extra minutes of my day, life proceeded as normal. I think most of us walk quickly and fail to recognize what's going on internally and externally as we do this. Walking quickly and anxiously immediately diverts our attention to the future, the place we want to get to. What happened to where we are now?
Until the next...
-Twisted Composure
" What's the rush!?"
-Grocery store oracle ;)
1 comment:
As a Boomer, I feel I am straddling two words. Both are shaky ground. My familiar is crumbling beneath me as new ways of being are becoming dominant. The quantum leaps of technology are happening so fast, I feel I can't keep up. It is refreshing that you are trying to strike a balance between the two. I will learn from your thoughts as I seek my middle ground.
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