Tortoise and the Hare

The baby is due to arrive next week. I'm excited, I'm already in love but I've also been pretty tired. Resting a lot--but when I rest, I also think. Combine that with the pregnancy hormones and I'm gushy and thinking in lots of different directions and having lots of Pooh Bear's "Deep Thinks." A good friend described me a 'crazy pregified' to refer to how far along I am and how close the delivery is. I think it describes the mental state pretty well too.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a recent thought. Nothing earth-shattering by far, but I guess it is feeling timely and relevant to me. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The moral of the story was, slow and steady win the race. Does that mean a steady dedication to a task will yield better results or that a slow and steady course through life yields the best results? Can you move so quickly through life that it exhausts you and you miss the best parts?



I've been ruminating about how much a person's life can change in just a short while. I'm also thinking about how big and sudden some life changes can seem when you haven't been in touch with a person for awhile. Maybe that's the missing out part, when you are so busy you don't stay in touch with people and everything seems to have passed you by?

Many friends and family and loved ones are going through lots of changes right now. A dear college friend of mine just got engaged; one of my sister's friends is about to be engaged. One of Tim's friends just got married. A friend of mine is trying to launch her own business. The company my SIL worked for just closed so she's making plans to go into business for herself and tackle a few other jobs on the side. Husband and I are expecting our second baby any day now, and good friends are expecting their third. The list goes on and on.

All of these changes are so life-altering that they can loom big and scary while on the horizon, but all of these life-changes are good too. They represent a maturing of each of the individuals involved, they herald the next stage of our lives and they are the natural consequence of being out there and living life. Some of it seems so sudden, as though we're the hare in the race rather than the slow, steady plodding tortoise. Right now I wish things could slow down and we could all be the tortoise and just savor the moments before everything changes again. Being the Hare just seems like a blur.