Quiet your Times Square Air

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The impetus for covering my bare legs that June morning was the chilly, damp air. Traipsing to my car, I was glad to have the thin layer of nylon between me and the wetness which kept splattering onto the back of my calves. I questioned the sanity of running errands on my late lunch break on such a day. How important were they?

Three errands later when I should have been patting myself on the back for accomplishing so much in just 40 minutes, I instead was mind-checking my To Do List, which seemed to grow every time I took a breath. A downside to being a processor is that sometimes you can’t stop processing!

I watched as droplets smeared across my windshield, changing from yellow to red in unison with the traffic light. I found myself grateful to pull to a stop and took advantage of it by taking a deep breath in… and relished letting it out slowly, drawing my chin toward my heart, allowing my shoulders to slump inwardly.

Until that moment, I don’t think I’d stopped all day.

I could hear the beeping and humming of my iPhone alerting me of new tweets, emails, and meetings. But they could wait. For now, I’m just going to stop and quiet my mind. Just for a moment.

“In with the good air,” I tell myself as I close my eyes and breathe in as slowly and fully as I can. “Out with the bad air,” I say as I peek out of one eye to be sure the light hasn’t changed. There’s nothing more irritating that being stuck behind the lead car at a traffic light, whose driver isn’t paying attention. Part of our GO! GO! GO! society, I suppose. But as lead car this day, I didn’t want to shirk my responsibilities.

And with that Good Samaritan thought, I thwarted myself into into “Times Square Air”, trying to sort any one thought out of the clutter which now whirled around in my mind… the dry cleaning I need to pick up at Feigenbaum’s (wait – did I ever drop it off?); that thing – that thing, that thing – what WAS that thing I keep forgetting to add to the grocery list; the phone call I really need to make; the hand-written note I really want to send; the birthday card I need to buy; the genius blog post idea I didn’t write down last night because I was almost asleep; the picture I want to take of Brody; the letter I need to respond to…

You get the idea.

Enjoying a reprise in the downpour, I traipsed back to the office with my umbrella closed, allowing a random raindrop or two to fall on my cheeks like kisses from Tinkerbell.

And that’s when I realized how important it was to run errands today. I needed that traffic light moment to breathe.

Press pause every once in a while on your own “Times Square Air”. And breathe. Just breathe. Remember why you enjoy it so much.

Allow the good moments, Friends. You deserve them!

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