Own your pace on Life’s Highway
I am fond of analogies and it’s always a delight when I hit upon one that closely resembles Life - a long highway where all of us fellow travellers are moving along the same road at different paces. There are those chosen few who are running hard and fast with the clear and unstoppable confidence of winning and being the first - like bubbles rising in water. Then there are a handful others who at their own pace are trying to find how far they can get and the best they can do. But mostly I see a mad rush of people who are running just because everyone else is running - their eyes not on the road ahead but darting left and right to make sure that they are one step ahead of the neighbor.
By sheer momentum and conditioning, I had first entered life’s highway as an adult doing the same - the force of this conditioning so strong that it took years before I could wean off it and try to find sense away from the madness of the crowd. It takes courage to change pace and opt out of a compulsive race - the inevitable weird glances from all the ones who are rushing by, controlled as if by a pre-set formula. At first, standing by the roadside and watching the mass of humanity rush by and leave you behind is like a sense of loss as you are left alone and standing. But the pause gave me time to breathe, time to feel and time to see the journey for the first time instead of some remote destination at the end of the road that was taught to us as the sole meaning of life. After a while I started to jog back in the lane and then stopped again just to believe that I could do it at will - that I could control my life as I wished - that to run or to walk or to pause was up to me - and not the crowd. Slowly, this became the norm and now as and when I feel like, I walk and when required, I pace up and jog or even sprint. And every once in a while, I slow down and pause completely - feeling free for the first time in my life. I start to see a few others who have discovered the same magic and when our eyes meet, we exchange a smile of understanding before resuming our journey on the highway of Life.
