The Luxury of an Unhurried Life

There are mornings when I catch myself hurrying for absolutely no reason.

The tea is brewing, breakfast is on the table, nothing is burning, no one is waiting and I'm not even late. Still, I find myself moving faster than the moment asks me to.

Opening one cupboard before I've closed another, walking quickly from one room to the next, checking my phone while waiting for the kettle to boil, mentally arranging tomorrow before today has properly not even begun. It happens so naturally that I hardly notice it anymore.

That's what habits do - They become invisible.

The strange thing is that life itself doesn't seem to be in any hurry.

The rain falls at its own pace. Trees don't bloom because we're impatient. Morning arrives quietly, whether we're rushing or not. Tea takes the time tea takes.

When we look around, it seems we became the only ones hurrying. Not because every day is an emergency or every minute is precious, but maybe rushing has become our default way of moving through life.

A friend called me a few days ago. We had barely spoken for five minutes before she said, "I have to rush."

She wasn't catching a flight, there wasn't an emergency - She simply had another list waiting.

After we hung up, I found myself thinking about how often that has become the soundtrack of our conversations.

"Time hi nahi milta." - I don't find time.

“There is so much going on.”

"I'll call you later."

"I've got so much to do."

And I realised I've said those very same words more times than I can count.

We hurry through breakfast because there are emails waiting.

We hurry through conversations because something else needs our attention.

We hurry through weekends because Monday is approaching.

Sometimes we even hurry while relaxing. It's an odd contradiction, but sadly true. 

This hurry, the constant urgency, the feeling that every empty moment must be filled, we assume this is simply what modern life looks like. Somewhere we feel, we are valued only if we show we are busy.

We rarely pause long enough to ask - Does it really have to be this rushed?

The more technology saves us time, the more we seem convinced we don't have enough of it.

You can call anyone in an instant, groceries appear at our doorstep, bills are paid with a tap, food reaches us faster than ever before. And yet the sentence I hear most often is still the same - “I don't have time."

I've started wondering if what we lack is time or something else. 

We have become so accustomed to living this way that we no longer question it. We have become so used to rushing that we've forgotten another way of living even exists. 

Hurrying has become our way of living - to finish one thing before beginning another, to let silence remain silence, to watch rain without reaching for the phone, to drink tea while it's still hot. 

Some of the happiest people I've met don't seem to own more than everyone else. But they do seem to possess something very rare in today’s world - The calm, the slow. They are rarely in a hurry, they arrive without rushing, they listen without looking elsewhere, they eat without multitasking.

When they are with you, they ARE with you.

It feels almost unfamiliar and that's why it feels so precious. We often imagine luxury as something money can buy - a beautiful home, fine watch, first-class ticket, table at an exclusive restaurant. Those things may well be luxuries in material terms. But real luxury is something immaterial. 

Like a morning that begins without urgency. 

A meal that isn't rushed.

An afternoon with nowhere you have to be. 

A conversation that lasts longer than planned.

A walk with no destination beyond the walk itself.

An evening where the clock quietly disappears from your thoughts.

An unhurried, slow life has become one of the rarest luxuries of all in today’s times. The older I get, the less interested I become in owning more. I find myself longing for something much quieter. A life where I don't feel the need to race through ordinary moments.

Because I've begun to realise that those ordinary moments were never getting in the way of life - THEY WERE LIFE.