For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a planner. I write out list after list, schedule after schedule, and don’t adjust well to things that throw off my plan. Last night before I went to bed, I wrote out my plan for today, starting with waking up and working out and ending with babysitting and coming home and relaxing before bed. I wrote when I would go running, what coffee shop I would go to study at after my run, and when I would return home for lunch. I wrote out exactly what I would accomplish when I was at the coffee shop and what I would do when I arrived home after lunch, and it looked a little something like this:
I ended up waking up a little earlier than I anticipated, which was fine with me, and I headed out the door for my run a little more bundled up than I have been on my other runs now that fall is finally here. I drove the ten minutes to a nearby nature park, my new favorite place for Saturday runs. My workout for the day was two, fifteen minute runs, with a two-minute walk break in-between. I started down a path I hadn’t explored yet, settling into my pace, enjoying the brisk air and taking in the sight of the leaves finally starting to change color. The path took me winding through the woods, then out into the open where I followed the path of a stream, and back into the woods again. At just about the end of my first fifteen minutes, I got the worst side cramp. I pushed through the pain to the end of my fifteen minutes, figuring the pain would go away during my two-minute walk break. It didn’t. As the time neared for me to start my next fifteen-minute run, I prepared myself to push through the cramp for fifteen minutes. I’m competitive, even with myself, and don’t like to admit defeat. However, not even a minute later, I was forced to slow down and walk. I was frustrated at first, but as I walked, I began to think.
How many times in life do I just try to push through the pain, or the business, or the stress? I don’t like to slow down. I try and fit as much as can into my schedule and I am convinced I can do it all. In high school I played three varsity sports and I worked part-time. In undergrad, I played three varsity sports, took at least sixteen credits a semester, and worked part-time. Now, in graduate school, it’s killing me that my Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays aren’t filled with practices, games, or work, despite my nineteen credit course load.
And yet today on my run when I took a minute to slow down, stop, take out my headphones, and just observe the world around me, I was able to get so much more joy out of my Saturday morning adventure. I strayed off the main path, exploring some side trails, only to discover this quiet stream down one trail and a neat little clearing down another. I noticed natural tunnels created by the trees bending towards each other overhead, decorated by the falling red, orange, yellow, and brown leaves. I observed a family of six or seven deer grazing and then run across my path with more grace than I ever have when I’m running. It was so amazing to just take it all in and observe, without my mind going a million miles an hour thinking about all of the items on my to-do list for the day.
Path to the clearing I found
Three of the six or seven deer I saw while adventuring
I could have spent all day by this stream!
Just a casual morning run in one of the prettiest places here in Nashville, Edwin Warner Park
So maybe I didn’t get my full workout in, but what I did gain was so much more valuable. During this time when schoolwork is piling up and midterms are just three days away, I am so much more at peace than I have been the past few weeks. I am rested and blessed and so ready to take on my to-do list, but I am also ready to take some time every so often to slow down, stop, and just enjoy the world around me, and I challenge you to do the same too.
And I got to end my wonderful Saturday morning studying in City Limits Cafe with a warm cup of chai!
Navigating Nashville 