Reflection on: The Slow Down

The school year is about to launch my family and me into a whirlwind. Where did the summer go? I'll tell you: into tasks that needed to be done. However, my thoughts about slowing down all year round are taking root, and I want them to dictate how I operate.

They won't wear Buzz and Woody boots forever

I look at Thing Three as he sleeps in a heap of baby rolls and I wonder where our newborn went. His brothers are way older than I remembered they were last night - and with the winds of the school year approaching, I don't want to become the 40-year-old who looks back and laments the busy schedules.

I want to enjoy my wife. Life gets messy and hard, but she's still my bride, my love. Will we use all our time together to work out how bills will be paid, or how to scrap and save for college funds? I don't want to. And although the peak of romance in our busy house is letting her sleep in, I would like to hold her hand and savor a moment here and there.

I want to slow down.

I want to know this moment is the only thing I have. I can't exist in the future, and the past is gone. But right now, it's here - I don't want to ignore it!

I've decided this school year will be the year of digging in and working my tail off. Sounds like a great way to slow down, doesn't it?

But it is.

If I decide to exist in every moment the way I should exist in it, then I don't miss anything; I don't waste away a work day because I'm daydreaming about next summer; I don't fret about school the next day because I have my crap done and I can build a fort of sheets with my boys.

Slowing down isn't always about doing nothing. If my mind isn't swirling with the should-have-done's, then it will be able to focus on one thing at a time. That's slowness - one thing at a time.

It's time to slow down.