Chasing the Golden Hour

I spent an extra twenty minutes in the driveway this morning, just watching the leaves fall. I was supposed to be at the grocery store, but the way the sunlight hit the trees made the whole neighborhood look like it was glowing from within. It felt like a secret I was being allowed to keep for just a little while longer. We spend so much of our lives rushing toward the next destination, checking our watches, and worrying about the clock. We treat the journey as something to be endured, a bridge between where we are and where we need to be. But what if the point isn’t the arrival? What if the point is the way the light changes when you decide to slow down, or the way the air feels when you finally stop trying to outrun the day? There is a quiet grace in letting yourself be late for the sake of something beautiful. Does the world look different to you when you stop rushing?

Zara Otaifah has captured this exact feeling of lingering in her beautiful image titled Kenosha Pass in Fall. It reminds me that the best parts of any journey are the ones we didn’t plan to take. Does this scene make you want to pull over and just breathe for a while?