People today go so fast. Tweets are sent in a millisecond. Typing a text is quicker than typing on a keyboard. Words spew out of our mouths before we have a chance to think about what we are saying. Cars are getting faster and faster. People are able to run faster than ever before. We wake up with a to-do list longer than our hair and it seems as if 24 hours gets shorter and shorter. We rush through the shower because we have to be at a meeting in ten minutes and then we pray that it doesn’t go over the scheduled time because we need to run across town to pick up the dry cleaning before the lunch line gets too long because otherwise we’ll make it back to work late and then we’ll have to make it up with overtime which can’t possibly happen this weekend because we have three parties to be at and a night class to attend on Friday and we still have four un-returned calls.

This is our life now.

We’re speeding to a red light.

We look past the horizon hoping there’s something more that’s out of eyesight, something better, something bigger. We wish for time to go by faster so we can get to tomorrow and then the day after and then the weekend and then all of a sudden three months have gone by and we still haven’t started that diet that we said we would try but we’re still looking forward another three months in advance because our best friend is getting married. And then we’re saying to ourselves that we can’t wait to get married because that’s when everything will be better. And then we rush and don’t take the time to find the right person and we end up settling and picking a fight over something small like leaving a toothbrush on the side of the sink instead of in the toothbrush holder and then we’re saying we can't wait to have kids because that will solve all of our problems.

We tell ourselves we can handle more and add one more thing to our list and move faster and be happier but how can we be happy if all we do is say we’ll be happy in the future? How can we be happy when we say we’ll be happy once we fall in love, and then once we have a family, and then once our kids grow up, and then once we hit retirement, and then once we finally get a smaller house until finally our partner dies and we’re left wondering what happened to the past 60 years? Why do we rush to try and pass Go when we know that Jail is just on the other side? The $200 can’t do you much good when you’re in jail. Why don’t we enjoy the Boardwalk for a bit, and take a Chance? Why don’t we enjoy the thrill of flipping over a new card but we count down until we can flip another?

We will lose ten pounds and we will gain ten pounds, we will get a job and we will lose a job, summer will come and go and so will Christmas. We go through the motions of each day just looking forward to tomorrow when in reality tomorrow isn’t any different. We wait until the New Year to make a resolution to write in a diary each day but then we have bills to pay off and we choose not to spend our money on a silly journal that we won’t keep up with because we simply don’t have the time. We look forward to the weekend so we can get a drink but then its Sunday and we’re hungover and then Monday comes and we look forward to the new weekend even though we know we’ll do the same thing but we don’t remember what the same thing means because our head is still pounding and we spent more time on our phones and talking about the bar we would go to next rather than talking about the one we were at in the moment.

Stop.

Just relax.

Just be.

Slow down. No matter how hard you try you can never outrace time. Time will always move faster than you do and you’ll just tire yourself out and lose time because you need to recover if you try to race it. Time is meant to be taken advantage of. Time wants you to go to bed at night and say, “Oh no, I didn’t finish everything on my to-do list because I got a manicure when I was supposed to drop this package off at the post office but at least I took a chance to breathe.” Time wants you to take the time to find the right person because Time only comes around once and if you don’t find the right person then Time feels like it was wasted because your soul mate is still left out there wondering why Time didn’t work. Our moments are dwindling. Why do we wish away our hours only to lie on our death bed wishing for just one more day? Time says, “I gave you days, I gave you plenty but you spent them planning out the next.” We’re going to die, it’s just another matter of Time. So why don’t we s..l..o..w..d..o..w..n. Breathe in and out.

The sky didn’t fall.

The earth didn’t shatter.

You just spent a moment of your time doing something not on your to-do list. You didn’t pass Go and you didn’t collect $200, but you also didn’t end up in Jail. Imagine if you spent more moments like this. Imagine if you were more spontaneous and savored every moment of Time that is given to you like a juicy steak that your tongue is begging you not to swallow because it doesn’t want to lose it. If you chew your steak slower, you enjoy it for longer. If you walk slower and absorb the trees and beautiful people that surround you, you enjoy a little bit more of your day.

When you look in your rearview mirror, you have a wonderful memory that you can hold on to. When you go slower, you have more gas in the tank. Maybe by going slower you’re able to see that exit that says, “Miracles happen here,” and you can take it and all of a sudden you get that raise that you worked so hard for and you find your person and you get a dog that puts a smile on your face each morning and you decide to start jogging and all of a sudden the endorphins in your body wake up and you smile at the person who holds the door open for you as you enter a local coffee shop and that makes their day and twenty years later you’re on an airplane and you find that person again and they tell you they used to suffer from depression because they felt invisible and you made a difference in their life on that one day that you smiled at them, because you took the exit that said, “Miracles happen here.” And then you leave the airport and think about that person as you run into the arms of your person and you smile because you are enjoying every moment that Time gives you, and you squeeze your person a little bit tighter and you experience love and joy and you understand the chain reaction of events in life. And then it feels like an eternity has gone by when you’re on your death bed but at least you have a movie that goes for hours playing all the smiles and spontaneous bursts of laughter and your person is holding your hand and there are tears dripping down their face but you tell them to stop the tears and you wipe them away with the corner of your hospital gown. And instead you ask them to just lay with you and look at the stars that are outside the window and to try and find the Big Dipper and to discuss whether or not you actually think the moon is as big as people think it is. And then you feel your eyelids getting heavy and you squeeze your person’s hand a little bit tighter as you whisper “Thank you” under your breath, as you whisper to Time and give thanks that you didn’t hit the gas and that you took that exit and that you didn’t pass Go and maybe you don’t have $200 but at least you have your person and the memories of the dog that made you smile and the life that you saved. And as you drift away and your soul looks down on the world passing in the rearview mirror, you realize…

the sky didn’t fall.

The earth didn’t shatter.

You just lived.