The pace of life. You don’t always hear it that often, but once in awhile, someone tells you they are changing their pace of life, they are quitting work, to travel, or working from home, or working less, or having a family, or going to enjoy spending time with their family, or simply enjoy small pleasures, like dancing barefoot around their house.

Today, I was up first and showered and while Mr. Michie finished getting ready, I ran out to get us coffee instead of making it this morning. It was still dark outside, the glow from the coffee shop was a warm welcome, the door was open, beckoning you inside and the aroma of coffee beans permeated the air and my nostrils.

One of the Brandenburg Concertos was playing when I walked in. The mood was right, the atmosphere was calming and I should have been sitting there savoring the moment, instead, I was agitated, I could only think about how much time I had left before I had to get to work, tick, tick, tick, what my morning would entail, what I needed to get done, what I can’t plan for, because there are always last minute requests, tick, tick, tick,  in my head I was becoming impatient, I thought, “make the coffee already!”, tick, tick, tick.

Then, I stepped back, I took a deep breath, what pace of life am I trying to keep to? At work, it is for the most part, constant, there is a rare moment to catch your breath, there are high expectations on staff and students, as there should be, but not always enough time to have a minute or two to call your own during the day. I should have been savoring those 15 minutes while I was standing in the coffee shop as my own, but instead I wasn’t.

I need to become better at that, I need to become better at catching my breath during the week, of not thinking so much about work, till I actually get to work, not an easy task, but I am going to work at it. I want to enjoy my own time, as my own, with my own thoughts. I want to change the pace of things.

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