Taking 2 Minutes

I read an incredible article yesterday about the importance of slowing the hell down and getting rid of all the clutter (figurative and literal) so that are our kids can breathe and relax and look at the world like it is a wonderful place to be explored, not a scary, fast-paced threat to be mitigated.

Article here:   http://raisedgood.com/extraordinary-things-happen-when-we-simplify-childhood/

I sent it to people who I knew would relate, Ben and I talked about it after Asher had gone to bed, the message stuck with me and I spent the early morning thinking, "How do I make Asher's life less chaotic as we approach this huge transition period?".  Then 8:15 rolled around and I hit the ground running with my to do list.  I called to schedule doctors appointments, haircuts, and Harlan's vet check up.  I paid bills, made a shopping list, checked both work emails, threw together my 'Wednesday playlist' based on my mood and goals for the day, and reviewed my notes for my first work call of the day at 9.  I looked to see which hospice patients had died the day before, felt a pang when I saw one was someone whose chart I'd been looking at for over a year, then opened up the patient record to do a quick review of what had happened in their last 48 hours.  Then it was 8:55.  I grabbed a glass of water, a handful of yogurt-covered pretzels, my glasses, and a pen and sat down at the computer ready for my call.  Jim and I talked for about an hour, and while discussing white papers and data collection/presentation avenues for Livio, I concurrently completed a review of my hospice patients primary physicians to make sure each person had one doctor identified, took notes from my conversation with Jim, glanced over the hard copy of Sullivan's allergy panel results, and updated my Wrike task list with future action items.

I'm generally really proud of my multi-tasking, but if framed from the perspective of the article I loved so much the day before, one has to ask... should parents also slow the hell down so that they can breathe and relax?  It was a question that kind of slapped me in the face as I sat there crossing things off my to do list just as fast as I was adding more.

So I put my phone on silent, took 4 minutse and 52 second to watch Sufjan Stevens version of Hotline Bling (which, by the way, is a hundred times better with a tambourine), and then took Harlan for a nice long walk.

I know we can't all be this relaxed...

But there is something to be said for reminding myself to also hit the brakes every now and then over the next couple of weeks while I do the same for my kids.