Faster

Sometimes, I would like things to happen right away--job progress, the effects of exercise, kids following instructions. Most of the time, things take longer than that. Job progress takes patience and working and networking. Seeing the effects of exercise takes days and weeks. And kids following instructions...
 
Today, as I fasted for Yom Kippur, trying not to count the minutes until I could eat again, I thought a bit about time--about how we want it to go faster, only to find that we have missed things along the way. If we see and feel the effects of exercise too soon, will we keep doing that exercise? If work progress comes too quickly, is it the right kind of progress? Do we rush our children through life, only to find that we have missed the high points in all our hurrying?
 
I was certainly not sorry when I could eat again tonight. Another fast is done, Yom Kippur is over for another year. I just wonder what I've learned. I may be a reasonably good faster, but have I learned when it's important to slow down? I may have learned how to "check the boxes," but have I learned which "boxes" really matter?
 
Perhaps "faster" only really matters if it helps us take things a little slower...