Snails

How many beautiful things in life do we miss because we are in such a rush? Sometimes having the ability to travel so quickly by planes, cars, scooters, skateboards, or long legs is a handicap that we have.

We pack our lives so tightly trying to fit as much in as possible, that we barely have time to breath. Many times we feel we much always be stressing over something. Understanding this, it doesn’t seem strange that we have reached escalated numbers of high blood pressure, ulcers and suicide trying to cope with the pressures of this high-speed life that is measured by MPH, upload speeds, download speed, mega hertz, and we stress if we can’t send a billion bites of information in a second, or that we are constrained to drive 35 MPH through a residential area when unknowingly we could travel to the middle of the North American content in one 24 hours period at the same speed only to miss millions of acres of the most beautiful landscapes known to man—and he grunt and the slow driver two bumpers ahead.

Everything that we do revolves around the same circular object. It is interesting to notice how many moments of the day people spend staring at the same object. We have clocks on the wall, microwaves, our wrists, in the car, on every electronic device known to man. How is it that looking at a clock and seeing where its arms are pointing causes innate anxiety? Who even invented the minute anyway?

People spend billions of dollars on finding ways to escape reality. Why is it that we seek to leave the life we’re living?

Maybe we’re going about life in the wrong direction—is a successful life really how much someone can accomplish with the time they have?

I envy the snail. We can learn so much from a snail—a small shelled gastropod that travels .03 MPH. Never hurrying, never overlooking a beautiful scene. Always surfacing after rain, when the earth is looking its best, to take a look and some deep breaths. Don’t they have the outlook on life that we should emulate? Sure, they may not be able to out run a predator, but it still seems desirable to me because I would rather die with a smile on my face, than a look of constant worry.

Just as I left class today I saw hundreds of students rushing off to the next class they had worrying about being on time or getting a good seat. Heads turned down to a race tilt for maximum walking speed I guess. In the mist of this rush-hour traffic on the sidewalk I stopped and lifted my gaze to the limestone stabs of the face of Rock Canyon dusted with new snow, and the highest peaks blazing with color from the rising sun. I slowed my breathing to take it in as zillions of people zoomed by so fast that they disappeared from my peripheral view. It was just me and the mountain beckoning each other higher, above the hassle of a pressure torn world.

I doubt any will read this but lets be snails because “Snails see the benefits, the beauty in every inch of life,” and shouldn’t we?

lants.