Occasional Thoughts

Five Miles Less

With the first day of a new month comes the first day of another of my "12 months of simplicity."  

Just as January's "100 things" and February's "digital directory downsize" drastically changed the way I view my possessions and my digital clutter, this month has the potential to drastically change the way I am present in the world.

For the entire month of March I will be giving up five miles per hour.  Whatever the posted speed limit is, I will drive five miles less.

I realized the other day that when we are driving - as well as with most of life - we are not truly present.  We are looking through the windshield at where we're going and what's coming next or we are looking in the rear view mirror at what's behind us and what we're leaving.  When all the while the world is flashing past us at a deadly speed.

In the Pixar classic Cars, Lightning McQueen is forced to slow down.  And when he does, he realizes the beauty and the wonder that has been present the entire time, only his life on the highway led him to perpetually overlook it.

Life is right here; it is not somewhere else.  My driving five miles less throughout the month of march, I hope to recognize the present, free myself from the tyranny of life on fast-forward, and discover a world that has been here the whole time while I was ignorantly speeding along.

Tags » Project 2010

• 1 March 2010
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