Being in a rural area, and overlapping borders in all sorts of ways I can drive up to an hour in any of 4 directions when visiting someone taken into one of the acute hospitals. Yesterday I took the train to Hereford whose hospital is conveniently located near the station.
Was it efficient or not?
In cost? yes, the fare was less than the mileage allowance and parking ticket would have been.
In time? Apparently not, there was a long wait for the next train, I could have driven there in that time. Once there a visit does not take more than half an hour – those in hospital are easily tired, and they need time with any other visitors – but the trains are hourly, so more waiting.
In spirit? Definitely. I felt relaxed and not stressed. Before my train was due I did some errands in town, then had time for an important pastoral phone chat on the mobile. On the train I had thinking time as well – but all of this was unhurried and relaxed.
Could I have fitted more into my afternoon by driving? Maybe but knowing me probably not. I would have been home sooner but tired, Sunday had worn me out and Monday had started with a staff meeting over the quarterly challenge of the preaching rota (The Plan in our jargon). At the moment when home and tired I am likely to retreat to the duvet and sleep, or at least zone out. Then I would have felt guilty about that.
Instead I felt calm, relaxed and achieved what I aimed to in that time. There is a lot to be said for the ideas behind the Slow Movement, taking time to breathe, time to reflect, rather than just rushing on and on. The old story of the tortoise and the hare, or in the words of one of the few poems to be etched in my brain (since the poet was famous in my home town) – What is this life if full of care we have no time to stand and stare..
Going by train wasn’t standing still to stare – it was moving, but not rushing. The advert says let the train take the strain.. Well whether by train or any other way can we instead of running full pelt then collapsing simply manage to pause and go slower – and let go of some of the strain?
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