When things are too fast, slow them down.

I wake up early. Super early. 6:30AM to be exact. I have a flight out of LAX at 10:30AM and I know LA traffic is a bitch. My bags are already packed and in the car the night before. I make a feeble attempt to make pancakes for my friend Andrew before I leave, but I am yet again reminded I am not a natural cook. I head out the door around 7:30AM and haul ass to Coffee Bean and Sunoco for Gas to fuel the car and my brain…. Mission accomplished. I head south and zig zag through the city, then down La Brea. I watch as cars go left, go right and the odd motorcycle zips past in between cars. It’s one of the things that blows me away about LA. They can squeeze through any car anywhere and it’s perfectly legal.

Stop and go. Stop and go is the scene for about 10 minutes. The sun is cascading through my window, giving me a few more minutes of the bright yellow before heading back to the TO grey. Suddenly traffic slows to a parking lot. I’m not surprised, and prepare for some people watching. As I inch forward I realize it’s not just volume causing the stop; It’s an accident that has JUST taken place next to a strip mall hosting a Starbucks, a Dry Cleaners and a Large Beauty shop featuring hair weaving services. The ambulance hasn’t even arrived. Two police officers are crouched over a motionless body. As I merge into the left lane, I realize it’s a driver of a motorcycle. His helmet is still on and his head is not on straight. His body is perpendicular to the curb and his head almost parallel. They are talking to him, checking his vitals without moving him. In a second his life is changed, his family, his friends, his children and many others degrees away from him. I pass by too fast to determine how the accident took place. He could have been turning into the strip mall and overestimated the distance of an approaching vehicle, He could have been weaving in between cars and one didn’t see him. There are multiple scenarios that resulted in him ending up on the grown, perhaps dead or paralyzed for life.

Once the accident marinated in my brain for a minute the feverish pace of LA traffic and need to be somewhere came to a halt. Everything around me lost it’s immediate relevance and all I could think about was how in the blink of an eye..... In a city where the majority of it’s citizens are searching for something more; bigger and faster car, bigger star on the walk, more friends, more success, a brief moment of mortality can wash all that away like they wash away all the dirt each night on Hollywood BLVD after the thousands of tourists trek through documenting and immortalizing the city that is constantly state of wanting more.

We get so wrapped up in the want, need and desire of our own lives, often times we forget to stop for a second and just exist. It could be to look at a painting, help a friend or watch a funny movie that the city above probably created. Hopefully you don't have to witness an unfortunate accident like the above, but hopefully you can benefit from the moment of reflection and take a second to do something that stops time for a minute and brings you closer to something, someone or your own heart.