The Slow Down

It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Temperatures were in the upper 80's, a few wisps of clouds hovered high in their ever-temporal fashion, and an oh-so-slight breeze danced through the city streets.

The pace was pretty relaxed; a friend had sent a message earlier asking about the possibility of a run after work, and such an idea sounded marvelous, even after a tiring day.  Truth be told, the lack of speed was an unexpected blessing, allowing the true nature of the day to soak in and replace the wearisome tenor that various circumstances and revelations of the day had caused it to assume.

Sometimes we need such a slow down to get us back into a disposition that allows us to take in the marvels of the world around us, to seek refuge from the brooding outlook that is all too often forced upon us.  Often times it proves difficult to reign in the speed of our runs, much less our lives and our world, even when we nominally make the effort; our slow runs paradoxically turn out to be yet another chore through which we rush in an effort to get to the next item on the list.  Our overly-filled, scheduled, planned, and regulated days have all too often caused us to miss the true benefits and beauty of the slow down.

A few easy miles on a warm, clear day can work wonders that are beyond the understanding of an air-conditioned mind working at 100 gigabytes per second.

Lessons of the slow down are easy to pick up, if we'll only take the time to try.