One recent Saturday morning I arrived early to work at the best coffeehouse in Cayucos. There were two women standing outside chatting with one another and closing in on me as they saw me reach for my keys. I unlocked the door, slyly slinked inside and locked the door behind me.

As I began brewing coffee and removing cellophane wrap from the pastries, the two women watched me intently through the window while shooting glances at the clock. Their impatient glares made me feel like a zoo exhibition.

“Come, see the barista in her natural habitat as she prepares for a Saturday morning rush for coffee. Admire how she takes the time to whip up a latte for herself and take a few sips before she unlocks the door to serve you on the hour.”

At 7 a.m., I unlocked the door. The two women rushed in, still chattering intently, and watching my every move as I rushed to set up the patio chairs. When I returned to serve them, they immediately barked their orders at me in near unison.

Halfway through steaming the milk for their nonfat extra hot lattes, one of the women said to me, “My friend here is in a hurry.”

“Oh,” I said aloud. What else could I possibly say? The milk isn’t going to froth any faster just because she’s in a hurry.

Not to be outdone, the one in a hurry tells me, “Yes, I’ve got to get going. I have to take a test, and I don’t want to be late.”

Well, there are two things I could have done in a situation like this. I could create the illusion that I was moving faster, or I could just do the opposite and move at a turtle’s pace.

To the frenzied woman’s dismay, I chose the latter. I contentedly worked with precision and grace as she lost her composure and began passively taunting me under her breath.

I watched that woman rush off like the white rabbit, determined to beat the clock, and speed to her morning test while downing her extra-hot latte as the regulars began to stroll in, commenting on the surf and pausing to bid everyone a good morning.

We all need to take the time to slow down — to appreciate our morning, our coffee and our community without feeling frantic about what we’re going to do and how much time we have to get it done.

The American Institute of Stress, a nonprofit educational organization, estimates that up to 90 percent of all doctor visits are stress-related.

We tie ourselves into a schedule where we feel that we have to get things done right now, on time. Then we move on to the next task or appointment without skipping a beat. This leaves us feeling drained of vital energy, and, in the long run, we’re less productive than if we had taken a few moments for ourselves.

When you’re working under stress, take the time to disengage from what you are doing, even if it’s just for a few seconds. Take a few deep breaths, and you can return to your work reinvigorated. In your free time, stretch out all of your kinky kinks. Take long walks, or ride a bike. Listen to music, and avoid watching too much television. Write in a journal or take up a hobby that interests you.

Employing relaxation techniques like breathing exercises and good stretching as well as taking the time to engage yourself through walking, writing, or a hobby is a great way to alleviate your everyday stresses and keep you from burning out.

One reason we Americans may be feeling so stressed and in a hurry to get things done, despite all of these techniques we may be utilizing to help us keep our cool, is that according to the International Labor Organization, we now work about nine weeks more a year (counting longer workdays and shorter paid vacations) than Western Europeans. We can’t dispel this fact with breathing exercises. We need to be proactive in support of legislation aimed at shortening the workweek to 30 hours and increasing paid vacation time.

Celebrate “Take Back Your Time Day” on October 24th by taking the time to do what you want to do. If that day is already booked for you, make the time to take a day out of time for yourself. Forget your watch and cell phone, turn off your computer and television, and just take a day for yourself to soak in a tub, bask in the sun or whatever you desire to your heart’s delight.

Remember, just because we’ve made great strides in technology does not mean that we’re better off than we were in the past.

As Benjamin Hunnicutt, essayist for “Take Back Your Time” put it: “The majority of slaves in the ancient world and serfs in the middle ages did not work as hard, as regularly, or as long as we do.”

The difference today is that we’ve been driven to buy into the notion that having more stuff means we have achieved a sense of status and worth. Our status and worth should not be obtained from working our butts off to afford material wealth. Rather, it should be earned by creating time for ourselves, our families, and for voluntary efforts in our communities.

Monsignor John Ryan, a leader in the struggle for shorter work hours during the Depression era, summed it up quite well. He wrote, “Human life is primarily qualitative. It consists in thinking, knowing, communing, loving, serving and giving rather than in having or enjoying. Its supreme demand is that we should strive to know the best that is to be known and to love the best that is to be loved.”

After all, life is not about chasing after the elusive bling-bling, it’s about being here now, breathing and loving as long as we can. Take the time to slow down your pace, wish your neighbors good morning, and to truly savor your lattes.
In the words of the great author, Milan Kundera, “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.”

Amber Hudson serves coffee at Kelley’s Espresso in Cayucos. She’s a single mother and a full-time student at Cal Poly. Her photo is not on this page.



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