On the way home from a particularly stressful day during one of the more stressful times in my recent life I heard an essay on the radio that talked about an interesting skill in mountain climbing called the “rest step”, where you take a rest in between each step, making steady, quick progress without wearing yourself out. Like the author of that essay, pace is not something that comes naturally to me. At my typical rate, I can feel like a freight train, and the slightest bump on the tracks derails my plans, and stops progress altogether. It means that I tend to be thinking about what I need to be doing next rather than concentrating on the current moment.

As the seasons change here in Boston, and Josie nears her first birthday, I find myself thinking about pace again. It’s helped me enjoy the time as our life has adjusted, becoming parents. It’s taught me that even if work late into the night, I can pause to have a calm dinner with Jen and Josie and make sure to read Josie a bedtime story. And it’s made me a better rock climber.

You can listen to the essay here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 26th, 2009 at 8:03 pm by Jordi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.