Progressing and Processing

I was on the go pretty much from sunup to well after sundown today. There were moments of down time, but moments so short that they were basically over once they started. I was in multiple boroughs and at multiple events. A lot of things just landed on the same day.
 
On the one hand, the day became about getting to each place on time--making sure that people were dropped off and picked up on time, and that I arrived promptly (against perhaps steep odds) to things that had hard and fast start times. My progress all day was amazing--from one thing to the next as if each stood alone.
 
What we sometimes forget in all of our running around, in all of our efforts toward progress, is taking the time to process what we have done (or seen or thought or felt). There are times (today included) when progressing can feel more important than processing. And yet, if all we do is run from event to event, glad to have been on time, what is the use in our having gone to any of the events? What has any of them done for our lives?
 
There was a lot of progressing time in my day, but I am happy to report that the processing won out as well. I am still hearing the songs and speeches--and feeling the emotion--from the bat mitzvah I attended. I am still a little breathless from the musical I saw from a "front center orchestra" seat (thanks to the generosity of a friend). I am still replaying conversations I had with my kids as we walked long distances to get from place to place. Clearly, it was a day devoted to progressing, but one full of processing as well.
 
It amazes me sometimes how much we try to do in our days. The key, I guess, is making sure that the feeling of accomplishment--the progressing--doesn't always overtake our ability to feel--the processing. Because thinking about things you've done, long after they are over, is worth more than any set of deadlines met. Sometimes, the processing ends up being the real progressing.