– Lao Tzu
Before he died, I asked my grandfather if he thought that life was better today or back when he was first getting married and starting a career in the 1930s. Without missing a beat, he said that life was better back when he was young. I asked him why, and he said that it’s all about life’s pace: everyone today is in such a rush and so stressed that we no longer have time for actual living. He described how people used to linger over dinner, relax on lazy afternoons, make small talk with their neighbors, and spend quiet evenings at home with their families instead of racing from one appointment, lesson, activity, class or meeting to another. Listening to him made me long to live in simpler times, but then I realized that we all have a choice: we don’t have to give in to the maddening rush to go ever faster and cram more and more in. We can break free from all of that craziness by remembering that whether we rush or not, everything will be fine.