“Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones. Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy. Ba da da da da da da, feelin’ groovy.” “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” by Simon and Garfunkle

Hopefully, just by reading the title to this you’re now humming that song and it will be stuck in your head for a little while.  I’m all for slowing down in theory, but in reality that is life I find that, like many individuals,  I rush through my day.

 “Life is a journey, not a destination.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don’t know how to slow down.  Intellectually, I do but the reality is I’m racing (trust me not literally) to get to the next item on the to do list, to the next day, to the next event or occasion.  I’m more like Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the road runner, but never quite getting close enough to catch him.

Some of the rushing comes from fear.  For me it is fear of never getting it all done, not experiencing enough of life before something I can’t control takes it all away.  It makes me sad, it makes me feel afraid and most of the time it prevents me from enjoying the moment, in the moment, that I am living in.   I started taking yoga once a week and one of the lessons they teach you in that painful forty-five minutes is to “come back into the space.” 

When I can try to practice “living in the moment” it is just better.  It is hard.  For months I have been getting ready to go on the trip I am going on in a few hours. For months I have not been living in the moment.  I’ve been rushing, fueled by fear, to get everything done before I go away. There are things that needed to be done for example: Make sure my dad has enough medications poured in his pill box and has people to take care of him (thank you in advance especially to my children and my amazing sister-in-law who are always there for me), make sure the dogs have enough food etc because we would not want them to go without ( or would we).  Make sure the bills are paid, and that everyone everywhere who has a birthday or anniversary or occasion while I am away receives their card in advance.  A little over the top perhaps but hopefully you love/like me just the same.

My husband Skip is the real planner who makes this happen.  With only me at the helm it would simply not happen.  The planning and execution to make a two-week adventure happen without the “what do you want to do today” takes genius skills that Skip has honed to a level few can even comprehend.  I’d tell you how he does it but then I would have to kill you.  ( I actually have no idea how he does it but thankfully my children have inherited his planning gene.)

Today I feel ready to go on this trip.  Weirdly calm.  One of my friends gave me some good advice:

Love

So at the moment, despite a less than ideal night of sleep (thank you hot flashes), I am as ready to go as I am going to be for this adventure.  Here are some random yet important thoughts.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the movie “Pretty Woman” in gratitude to my husband Skip for all of his planning skills and making this vacation a reality.

“In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight.”