Stop and Smell The Cow Manure

This year, I put my son in a private school for kids with learning disabilities.  One of the greatest decisions I ever made.  Only problem…it is in the exact opposite direction from my house that my job is, so I easily spend 2 hours a day in the car, 3 if he has baseball practice (which is most days!).

Every problem, though, can just be a door to discovery.  In this case, we’ve learned to stop and smell, well, all kinds of things.

We live in the city.  Last year, my son went to school 2 miles from my home, and we passed 4 convenience stores, 4 fast food restaurants, at least 4 regular restaurants, a Coca-Cola call center, a chain drug store, a grocery store, a police station, and numerous other various businesses to get there. 

This year, we go the opposite direction.  We could hop on the interstate and exit at a major industrial park and pass just as many of those things as we used to, and it would take us 20 minutes to get to school, IF there were no accidents on the interstate.  The first week of school there were 2.  The second week 3.  The third week, well, we stopped going that way. 

Taking the back roads takes 22 minutes, EVERY day.  We don’t see a lot of other cars in our travels.  We pass zero fast food restaurants, no regular restaurants, no call centers, no drugs stores, no police stations.  We do pass a couple convenience stores and a grocery store, and lots of cows, horses, fruit stands, and wide open spaces.

Today we had to slam on the breaks for a turtle in the road.  Last week we stopped at one of the fruit stands because we were craving watermelon.  When we’ve passed the horse crossing sign, we’ve got 10 minutes to go.  We turn at the corner where there are 3 cows, one a baby.  We imagine living in the mansion we see being built out in the middle of nowhere.  We know how many speed bumps we go over before we reach school.  The drive in the morning has become pleasant instead of stressful.  We also now take the same way back home.

Sometimes it’s just really nice to take the extra couple of minutes and enjoy what the world has to offer us instead of trying to rush through it.

And that, my friends, is the real reason they have wine.  Sit back and relax.