It is our last night at our ministry site here in San Pedro, Costa Rica. The day has been full of goodbyes and reflection on all that God has done this month. (An entire blog about all of that will come soon during our debreif in Nicaragua) But there is one thing I wanted to key in and focus on before leaving this beautiful soil, and that is TICO TIME.
If you know me well, you know that I absolutely hate being late. I feel rude, disrespectful, and honestly quite embarrassed. On time is late, and early is on time..right? In an effort to keep up my “schedule” I move through life pretty quickly, while also trying to bring everyone else along with me at that pace
My first week in Costa Rica any idea I had of what time should look like was completely shut down. We were heading to a meeting in the next town over that started at 5..its safe to say we definitely didn’t leave early enough to make it there by 5. Not to mention we stopped and talked to a friend of our host along the way.. And then also got ice cream.
Tico Time: setting a time to meet with someone with an understanding that you wont actually meet until a half hour to an hour after that set time.
This basically goes against everything that has been engrained into my mind the last 4 years of college. But it is so so good.
This month I learned how to slow down my life. I also learned patience.. Lots and lots of patience, some people adapted to tico time a little bit faster than I did.
There is so much of life that is missed due to our crazy busy and hectic schedules. We are constantly on the go and distracted by everything except the living human being right beside us that probably has a really cool story to tell if we would just pause, take a break, and listen.
As a reminder to myself and hopefully an encouragement to you, slow down. Live your life.. Truly live it. Embrace every moment..every conversation..every person. Take a step back and breathe. Put your cell phone down and turn off the wifi, that post will still be there when you get home.
No, I am not saying that I am going to forever follow exact Tico Time because that might not go over well in America. BUT if the mindset about the pace of my life continues to be anything like my time here in Costa Rica, I know my life will be a lot more full.
