Speed Bumps

When I take the two boys to the equestrian center where they volunteer two or three days a week, we drive through a park, a green oasis of nature tucked among the busy city streets, a large mall, and the nature preserve in the hills, to the ranch at the very back of the park. It is almost a mile through the park, 15 mph, enforced by nine speed bumps along the way.

Some drivers come to a complete stop and gently roll over them.  S-l-o-w-l-y.  I guess with some little cars you have to creep over them.  We drive a larger SUV type vehicle, (seats more people, eats more gas) which doesn't require being driven like an eggshell.  The speed bumps slow us down.  Why don't they call them Slow Bumps?  Or Jar-the-Car Bumps?

The intention is to make you aware of the surroundings and the safety of the children and people and dogs at the park.  I understand that. I do appreciate watching the changing trees, the blooms, the colors, the drifting leaves, the grass growing.  Each week there are subtle changes to see.  If I wasn't forced to slow down, I might drive right past, unaware.

Life has speed bumps, too: illness, accident, job changes, things break or quit working, relationship shifts...not the roadblocks, or the switching of the tracks or derailment.  Just the things that happen, the annoyances, the inconveniences, the minor setbacks that catch our attention, make us ask, "What was that?" or, "Whoa!" or more intelligently, "Huh?"  Like catching a cold, or twisting an ankle, or losing the tiny screw from your glasses into the caverns of the rug, or the sink plugs. We are forced to slow down, re-evaluate, adjust our schedule.  We have to decide whether to bounce over the life-bump or crawl over it. They are the smaller things that interrupt, that arrest our attention. Learn to appreciate the speed bumps, to learn from them, and take them in stride.
Have you bounced over any life speed bumps lately?

The view from a speed bump