Take life at a slower pace

by Whitney Stock

I found this from The Snapper:

"What is wrong with the people today? Why are we always in such a rush? Sometimes it seems I am rushing my life away. When I finally stop to take a breath I realize I am missing all the little things.

Everyone knows what I am talking about. We constantly hear ourselves say, “I cannot wait until the end of the week,” or “I cannot wait until the end of the year.” There is constantly something we cannot wait for. In the end, when we look back, we are going to realize we have wished our lives away.

I have realized that in all my rushing I have missed so much. I have always wanted to live my life and look back and have no regrets, but I do have them. I lost someone very close to me not so long ago. After she passed away, I realized how much time I could have spent with her if I was not always on the go. If I had it to do over again I would not have been too busy to have lunch to talk on the phone or to just sit around the house and veg out.

I would have spent more time just wasting time with her, instead of just rushing out the door. It seems that all I wish for now is to just have one more day with her, because I realized all the days I wasted, not taking the time to care. I will always regret missing the time I could have spent with her. If I just had stopped rushing, I would have seen that I could have gained so much.

In the midst of our busy everyday lives, we need to stop and look around us. It is the little things that are important, and it seems those are the things that we are constantly missing.

Think of all the things you could do if you were not always in such a rush. Think of all the little things that you would not be missing if you just slowed down.

You need to appreciate the time you have with the people you care about today, not when it’s too late. Do not wait, do not put it off until tomorrow, tell them and show them today that you care.

I heard once, “Even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat.” So think about it, what could you do if you were not always in such a rush?"

I found this article online after I absentmindedly keyed in "Pace of Life" in Google just now.. I don't even remember why I did that.... maybe it was because I'm still subconsciously frazzled by the health scare my sister had yesterday when she almost fainted after spraining her back badly the day before. After lunch, she turned all pale and started seeing flashes of white. I wasn't at home at that time and didn't get to know about it till much later. However, she had to be sent to the hospital as "all colour had drained from her face" and she turned ghostly white and couldn't even stand up. When I finally got home in the evening (thankfully she had returned and was better and resting), I spent the evening deep in thoughts....

For a relatively long time, I'd been so absorbed in what I was doing that I became stressed, irritable, and impatient with the people around me. Sadly speaking, it had been about me, me, me. I wanted to sort out all the insecurities and stresses in my life until I was ready to go out into the world and smile again. Soon enough, I stopped caring about the people around me. I wanted to run the rat race again, or at least to prove that I was still in for the running..

but now i'm starting to ask myself again: Is all the sacrifice worth it? Was everything supposed to be so stressful? Or was it supposed to be enjoyable and carefree? Challenging, yes, but endlessly hair-losingly stressful? No, I don't think so...

I think it's time to re-evaluate my priorities, before it's too late.... :|

a related article: Modern pace of life: is it killing us off?