slow down

I am usually late. Whether it is because I took a wrong turn, or wanted a few more minutes of sleep or tried to get one more thing done or (horrors) spent too much time on twitter/gmail/reader I end my trips in a hurry.

That’s why this sign was so compelling this afternoon.

Patient Parking.

Patience is the last Thing on my mind as I swing into most parking lots. I’m on the next conversation, the next list, the next excuse. But I wondered what patient parking would look like. Would it look like deferring to others? Would it look like lingering in the car for a moment when I stopped, finishing the last song or NPR story? Would it look calm?

I know. I’m taking the sign out of context. It is, after all, at a local hospital where I was visiting someone. But as I think about the health costs of our impatience, the stress that affects hearts and stomachs and relationships, I think that learning patient parking might keep some of us out of “patient parking”.

So have a great weekend. Stop looking so hard for road signs and be willing to look for parking signs as well. Park and walk and run and sit and drink coffee and read the paper and laugh at the kids and turn off the news (except for NBC News when Jim Long is behind the camera). Take a cool shower and pray and hold someone’s hand and tell someone that you like them or love them or care about them.

See you later.

Technorati Tags: patience, stress, laughter, weekend

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looking for a sign

If you are a regular here, you know that I’ve been writing about signs. (If you aren’t a regular, please subscribe). I have tons more signs that I can write about. If you look in my flickr signs photostream, you can see several that I have written…and several on deck).

I realized, however, that you might have some examples that you have seen in your search for signs. If you want to suggest a sign for me to write about (I reserve the right to decide what to say), upload the picture somewhere, tag it “signslife” and then leave a comment here that you have put a picture somewhere. I’ll look for them and then write about them.

I know that this is a pretty low key contest. I’m a pretty low key guy. (My feet are on my desk as I’m writing, for example). However, it would be fun to interact with what you see rather than just what I see.

So there you go. Something to do for the weekend. (If you don’t have anyway to leave a link, let me know and we’ll figure something out).

Thanks.

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