Another typical day has passed. Of course, my day-to-day routine changes quite often, but there are still some steadfast jobs that occur without fail. The kids wake up, breakfast is made, off to school they go, work begins and ends as usual, family dinner, bedtime, and then we start all over again. Sound familiar?
On a typical day of walking the kids home from school, it is not uncommon for me to say, "Hurry up" or "Come on then, let's get home" to my children, who tend to walk along at an excruciatingly slow place. On this particular autumn day, there were piles of fallen leaves scattered along our path. My eldest, uncharacteristically, took off running. "Oh good, I thought, maybe we can get home at a decent time." But instead of continuing on as I'd hoped, she ran straight towards a big pile of leaves. Back and forth she went - kicking up as many leaves as possible.
My youngest soon joined in. Instinctively, I started my usual, "Come one now…we've got to get home," but I stopped myself mid-sentence. What's the rush? Why ARE we in such a big hurry? Then I realised - we needn't rush at all. For once, I had no appointments, no meetings. I've just been so used to rushing from one thing to the next that, inherently, every daily task has become a timed event.
I look a deep breath and watched my little ones literally jump for joy. They piled the leaves up again and ran through them over and over. Instinctively, they'd glance over to me, almost as if they were waiting for me to say it was time to go. But I never did. In that moment, in that tiny space of time, I slowed down and just enjoyed it.
It's the little things in life that make a difference. Sometimes, we just have to slow down to see that.
