Greg and I are in Mystic, CT. My oldest nephew, Josh, is getting married. We are staying at The Whaler’s Inn (www.whalersinnmystic.com) right in the heart of downtown Mystic. It is across the street from The S&P Oyster Co. restaurant (www.sp-oyster.com).
We first went to S&P in 2005 when we visited my brother and his family. Greg loves the water and S&P is right on the Mystic River. While seated in the dining room you can watch the drawbridge go up to let boats pass through. Greg enjoys this so we tend to have a meal at S&P each time we visit.
That was one of the deciding factors for this trip when it came to lodging. Additionally, The Whaler’s Inn is not too far from the wedding location; bonus #2. While we were very excited about staying at The Whaler’s Inn, the only drawback was the Queen bed in our room since we are used to a King bed.
On our drive from Providence, RI airport to CT, we discussed whether we should ask about a room with a King bed. For various reasons, we decided to leave things as they were. Once we got checked in and went to our room, we knew it was meant to be.
We were on the 3rd (top) floor, which is a preference of ours, even without an elevator (and especially without an elevator so we can get extra small bouts of exercise). Our room was a corner room so we had windows on two walls which was really nice when we opened the windows. And, most importantly, our room had a limited view of the drawbridge so we got to enjoy watching the drawbridge numerous times on this trip.
The drawbridge goes up once each hour, on the 40 mark. As we enjoyed the continental breakfast this morning, the bridge went up twice. I noticed the first time how much of the life around us stands still for those moments the bridge is up. No cars can go which backs up traffic. Clearly, no one can walk across the bridge.
Cars waiting for the bridge to go down
Once the bridge went back down, traffic was flowing and people were walking again. I liked that pause forced by the drawbridge. One man in his car read the newspaper while he waited. It made me think how we really should force a pause in our lives, every hour, for just a few brief moments. What is the harm? Anything you are doing surely can wait a couple more minutes to get completed.
So, why does this sound so easy, yet it is so difficult to do?
What if we started with just once each day? Or even a couple times each week if daily sounds like too often initially?
Make that a part of your daily life. Then increase to twice each day. Slowly and surely, make time for you. Think about something or think about nothing for those moments.
Take time to relax and breathe deeply. Once you get back to doing whatever it is you were doing before your pause, you will have a calmer mind.
