🌧️What the Speed Limit Can Teach Us About Living More Slowly

I’ve traveled to many places. Places where the cars feel faster, the honks come quicker, and even the grocery store checkout seems like a race. But here in the Pacific Northwest, things move a little differently.

We drive slower. We wave when someone lets us over. We pause at four-way stops like we’re unsure who should go first, but in a good way. And I’ve come to believe it’s not just about the cars.

It’s about the way we move through life.

🌲 Gentle Roads, Gentle Rhythms

There’s something about winding down a misty road, the forest on either side, that naturally invites slowness. Maybe it’s the weather, how rain coats the windshield and makes you lean in, more aware. Or the curves of country roads that ask for caution and care.

But I think it’s more than that.

I think the way we drive reflects something deeper about how we live.
We’re not in as much of a hurry.
We notice things.
We’re mindful of the moment we’re in.

🌧️ Even the Rain Slows Us Down

The rain here doesn’t yell. It whispers.
It doesn’t pour all at once and vanish, it lingers. And so we linger, too.

• We build in extra time.

• We pull over to let someone pass.

• We stop to admire the fog hovering over the valley like a Pendleton wool blanket.

Even the weather seems to say: You don’t have to rush this.

🌱 The Garden Doesn’t Hurry Either

I’ve started thinking about this when I’m doing everyday things… cooking a meal, pulling weeds, listening to someone I love.

The lesson of the speed limit shows up everywhere:

• Don’t rush a recipe. Let it simmer.

• Don’t cut someone off mid-sentence. Let them unfold.

• Don’t pull up roots too soon. Growth takes time.

🚗 Driving Slower as a Metaphor for Presence

Maybe slowing down in the car is just practice.

• Practice for staying present in a conversation

• Practice for parenting with patience

• Practice for noticing that one fern that unfurled overnight while you were busy with something else

We all live by some kind of internal speed limit.
And sometimes, the most loving thing we can do, whether for ourselves or for others, is to ease off the gas.

With heart,
Margaux
🌱 In the rain, we root. In the wild, we grow.