Innovation Network: Wake Up Brain Weekly Message: August 28, 2000

As the "lazy days of summer" (did you have even one of those mythical days?) come to an end, we begin to gear back up for fall -- school, new projects, planning for the coming year. We can almost feel the pace of our days quickening as the fall air turns crisper.

This might be our last opportunity to think about the cost of this increase in tempo ... a cost sometimes known as "hurry sickness." One article by Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper calls this phenomenon an epidemic too often resulting in heart disease, high blood pressure or depression of the immune function.

Dr. Larry Dossey in his book "Space, Time & Medicine," states, "The perceptions of passing time that we observe from our external clocks cause our internal clocks to run faster."

In our hurry-up world, it sometimes seems like the last thing we have time to do is take time. Here's a check list from Dr. McGee-Cooper to see if you have this thing called "hurry sickness":

Do you:

typically drive 5 or more miles per hour over the speed limit?
get impatient in meetings when someone goes on a tangent?
find it difficult to respect people who are chronically late?
rush to be the first in line even when it doesn't matter?
view "hanging out" as a waste of time?
often rush or hurry your children or spouse?

If you answered "yes" to all or most of those questions, you might want to spend some time planning some slow time. You might also look at the lives of your children ... some studies show that children have as little as 20 minutes a day in unstructured time. Where do they find time to day dream, doodle and watch clouds drift across the sky?

Recently as I contemplated time, I wrote the following poem which I thought I'd share with you.

In the meantime, find some slow time. --Joyce Wycoff

Time

by Joyce Wycoff

Fifty years and four have
flown past my door.
I no longer have time
to not have time.

I do not have time to zoom past a field of flowers
glowing orange in the morning sun.
I do not have time to travel the world seeking
the wonders to be found in my own backyard.

I do not have time
to come back later
Or do it tomorrow
for tomorrow may never be.

I do not have time
to not slow down,
to put off a poem, delay a hug
or walk past a prayer.

I no longer have time,
for now, time has me.