Open Letter to My Tendency to Rush Through Life

It’s time to slow down.

I’m currently in North Carolina, just a few weeks into a 12-week road trip around the country. I am stopping in different cities to see friends and teach writing and meditation. I’m also out here facing some demons and learning some hard lessons (and also having a lot of fun and laughing, don’t you worry).

One of the hardest lessons I’m learning is to slow the f*ck down. So I wrote myself this letter:

To the girl who hikes on a sunny, early spring afternoon and tries to picture nature as it will soon be, instead of as it is:

Slow down. The leaves on which you tread are left over from months ago and they survived quite the beating from winter’s ice and snow. How resilient! You could stand to learn a thing or two from them. Look at the trees. They look dormant, but they’re stretching inside, warming and waking. The branches wave freely at the sun, thanking it for staying a bit longer these days. Why not join them?

To the girl who will drive with a full bladder for too many hours because she just wants to get to her next destination:

Slow down. Pull over. Pee somewhere weird. You brought four rolls of toilet paper on this trip for this very reason. Or, just like, stop at a McDonald’s or something. Better yet, stop and pee at a rest stop in every state you drive through so you can say you sprinkled your pee all over the country. You went on this trip to see more of what is in front of you, not live with a perpetual UTI.

To the girl who has to plan it ALL out WAY ahead of time:

Slow down. You’re not fooling anyone, babe. You can imagine every possible scenario and talk yourself in or out of all sorts of exciting and awkward situations. But things will unfold however they unfold and no one gets extra credit if they’ve prepared a situation-appropriate dialogue ahead of time. Because extra credit ended when you graduated from high school almost 15 years ago.

To the girl who is spending the next week peeing in a yard because that’s how it works where she’s currently staying:

Hahahahahahaha. You just peed on your new yogi-approved TOMS because you were rushing. I’ll say it again, but I think you get it now:

Slow

Down.

—

I’m currently on the road, traveling the U.S., teaching people how to get their lives in order by using movement, meditation and writing. You and your friends should come to one of my classes. Check out my tour schedule.