What’s the Rush? A New Season is Coming.

I spent this past weekend in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Three of my girlfriends and I rented a beautiful stone house on a working farm in New Holland, PA. Being the only Lancaster County “newbie” they took me around the area to do most of the traditional activities. I say “most” because we didn’t go for a buggy ride, but I would have been game.

One of the things that struck me while visiting New Holland was the stark contrast between the way the Amish live and the tourists that fly by them in cars going 45 mph while on their cell phones.

We’re in such a hurry to get everywhere we’re going. From work to the grocery store to you-name-it. We want to get there and get there NOW. But I think there is value is slowing down. I’m not saying you have to slow down to a clip-clop pace of a horse drawn buggy (but I’m not saying that would be awful either).

As we would pass a buggy I would admire the beautiful horses pulling each small black cart. Horses that weren’t spooked or frightened by the noise of an engine coming up along side them. Horses that were confident in the work they were called to do, not distracted by the frantic and frenetic pace anyone else was keeping. And I wondered to myself if the people inside the buggy (and even the horse) were thinking, “what’s the rush?”

I wondered that, because I’m often thinking it myself these days. What’s the rush? Why are we moving so fast through every season, eager to get the next one and to leave this current one behind? Maybe it’s because we think we know what the next season will hold or maybe because we’re anxiously awaiting stepping out of the difficult season we’re in.

I get it. I’ve been there. I’ve waited with restlessness for new seasons, but I’m tired of such an exhausting pace. I’m teaching myself to embrace a slow-down mentality these days. It doesn’t matter if Target, Walmart or Hobby Lobby tell me Christmas is just around the corner. There’s still 30 days until Thanksgiving and I’m not going to be rushed.

So as you go into this new week my encouragement to you is to slow down and take notice. Take care of yourself and those around you. Don’t be in such a rush and don’t let the world tell you to hurry up. A new season is coming, and it will arrive whether you speed through the next two months or not.

Winter is coming… but it’s not here yet. Enjoy the fall.