Life's on the slow lane

MUCH has been said about being on the fast track. Modern conveniences inadvertently spell out to be Instant this, and Instant that. It seems so long ago that our forbears used to take their time walking from one cottage to the next and never count the distance or the time taken.
These days, we are always in a hurry. We rush from department meeting to board meeting. Most of the time, or rather half of the time, we forget what transpired at these meetings.
Some of us buy expensive PDAs (personal digital assistant) to help organise our thoughts. We all think it's pretty cool to have an iphone, a Blackberry and GPS cellphone.
Sometimes I wonder how our ancestors a century ago would have handle all these modern gadgets. Yes, no doubt if these ancestors were alive today, they would be flabbergasted.
Some of these modern devices still have not entered my front door, even though I have seen pictures of them or read about them on the Internet.
But how much do we really need to make our lives more exciting, more interesting and more convenient? A long time ago, when these conveniences didn't exist, life then continued nevertheless.
People nowadays seem to think that without some of these technological wonders, life will come to an instant end. Perhaps life is passing us by while we are considering what other new gadgets we want to add to our collection.
For many years now, I have deliberately learnt to slow down. Take for example, in congested city streets. The tendency among motorists is to be the first one off the block. Sometimes when the traffic lights are on the verge of bursting green, you can hear the roar of revving engines.
Everybody seem to be in a hurry. Frankly, what's 20 seconds in your life? Once, I was at a traffic junction, the light turned green, I was about to dash across to the other side when I hesitated, a mere three seconds.
Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, a speeding truck dashed in front of me. Obviously, that trucker had beaten the red lights by exactly three seconds. Now, if you were to ask me what had I learnt from that, my answer would be those precious few seconds separated me from crossing over to God's green acre.
When I amble along on life's slow lane, I find out that birds are actually quite beautiful. They chirp without a care in the world. And somewhere at a nearby tree, its mate returns Nature's call.
What a wonderful litte discovery. If I had moved my feet a bit faster, I would have missed all that. I also found out that trees rustle in rhythm to the winds. Yes, there are swaying palms on my side of the world. In fact, if you really close your eyes, you can imagine those palms whispering.
Thus that unforgotten song that has those words: "whispering palms..."
The Buddhist monks learnt this important tenet of life millennia ago. They call it mindfulness. If you take your time with your actions as well as study the movements of other life-forms around you with great deliberation, you will allow all your five senses to partake in a feast of recognition.
Leonardo Da Vinci practised this centuries ago. There's actually a book entitled Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. It tells you that such deliberate actions will add volumes to your personal intelligence.
Life on the slow lane is not for those who exist, it's for those who live to love, study and appreciate and finally rejoice.