A Drive Through The Woods

I have a beautiful drive into work in the morning. A winding road carves through pine forest delivering spectacular views from behind the wheel of our Forester. I often miss the views when my mind wanders, but I make a real effort to notice the scenery each day.

The NC State School of Forestry owns a stretch of our morning ride. Last year they cut down a large section of pines to the study the process of regrowth. They left a few of the tall, skinny pines standing in order to seed the section that was cut down. Around the remaining pines, the ground was bare. Nothing was left except small shrubs and the remnants of the great trees cut down by the lumberjacks (without the flannel shirts and maple syrup glazed beards are they still considered lumberjacks?). Simply put it looked like a sierra club crime scene after their handy work last year. The remaining trees looked lonely and bare.

While the happy little forest had a black eye, day-by-day we grew used to the new views. We were sad in the beginning to see the woods thinned, but grew to enjoy seeing life spring back from the forest floor. It isn’t roaring back, but rather creeping back. You won’t notice large changes morning-to-morning, but you will month-to-month. The forest is healing and there is an underlying sense of reassurance in watching it do so.

A few miles down is a bit of a different story. The land bordering the research property is owned by a development company. Around the same time as the research grounds, the trees on this property were leveled as well. Rather than the patience of nature filling the new space, builders started tacking up houses.

Bulldozers, dump trucks and teams of men cobbled these 4 houses together before I got around to hanging Natalie’s wine and design paintings resting on the floor at home. Every time we passed by the build site, there was a new addition. In the time it took the shrubs of the nearby research grounds to reach 5 inches, 8 enormous houses had been built.

I’m not trying to point fingers at habitat destruction, but rather to point out the difference between nature’s rhythm and the one we have created.

It’s better right? We get more things done so we’re happier. We wolf down our breakfast, tailgate the whole ride into to work and leave the game before the start of the 9th inning to beat the traffic to save time. We fit so much in, our day looks like an efficient dance choreographed by an air traffic controller. But is it worth it?

Nah…I don’t think so

Living at this pace is doable, but it has a cost. Almost anything we do outside of what’s natural has a cost. In the same way eating chemically modified fast food makes us gain weight, moving outside our natural rhythm causes stress that is completely avoidable.

Now I’m not suggesting we join a commune and live in the woods to grow food and weave hemp loin cloths. What I do think we should do is slow down and relax a little bit. I get caught up in the stampede like everyone else, but I try to operate on what I call “relaxed urgency”. I work diligently to meet deadlines and timetables, but try to relax in the process.

For example, a lot of people get bent out of shape when someone, who has spent a considerable amount of time on this planet, is hunched over the wheel going a mile or two under the speed limit. This may fly on a Sunday afternoon, but it gets most peoples’ blood boiling during rush hour…but why?

Let’s say that you live 10 miles from work. On a perfect day you’ll push the speed a bit and go 50 MPH. However, this morning you get behind a Cadillac going 43 in a 45 MPH zone. You’re seeing red right? It ruins the good thing you had going. You can’t concentrate on the music floating out of the speakers. The comfortable handle on your steering wheel that you had earlier tightens into a Kung Fu grip. You’re going to get there a whole…1 Minute 57 seconds later than if you were going your usual speed.

And to be clear we aren’t losing that time off our lives. We’re just spending it in a car seat rather than a couch or office chair. We spend so much time and money on our cars, why not take more time to enjoy being inside them? The only way you are really going to lose that time off your life is if you get stressed about it.

There are some instances where rushing is important. Running from a black bear comes to mind (natural instincts are good here), but mostly anything else is improved by a calm mind. Be prompt, but relax when rushing won’t make much of a difference. That doesn’t mean taking 2 weeks to respond to an email, but why not take an extra 3 minutes to read over it a bit. Feel your fingers typing to keys and use the words that you feel fit that email best. If you’re mindful both you and your product will benefit.

Try to check in and notice how you’re feeling from time-to-time. Ask, why do I feel rushed right now? Why are we getting a coffee to go instead of having a cup in the cafe? If it feels rushed and you feel stressed, slow down. Drink a cup of coffee in the café and concentrate or the flavor and aroma. You’ll have more energy (the caffeine helps). Lao Tzu ties a bow on this subject when he reminds us “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”