This past weekend, Saskatchewan roads were shut down because of heavy snow fall. Some highways were closed, people were not recommended to travel and city streets were quiet. The shovels, ploughs and street cleaners couldn't keep up and by Monday morning, traffic had to carefully navigate through the snow banks, ice, stranded vehicles and immovable buses. People refused to "shut down" but mother nature forced everyone to slow down.

I felt this new rhythm personally as my daughter's car was one of the many stranded vehicles. We waited 30 hours for the tow truck to arrive and tow her Camry to the service station.

As inconvenient as this weather is, I have to appreciate the new tempo our community adopts in these situations. Quickly coming to grips with the fact that weather is out of our control, most of us are calm and move slowly. People typically adopt more patience when they are driving and some are more courteous with each other as they share the roads. Moving slow is a movement that is starting to take heed when it comes to eating. The premise of this concept is based on the fact that eating slowly is healthier for one's digestive tract, as opposed to gobbling up one's plate.

I think the same concept can be assumed for an overall lifestyle. Might I point out the fact that the root cause(s) for the vast majority of injuries are the state of fatigue, frustration, rushing and/or complacency (FFRC). If our society adopted a permanent lifestyle change that had us slow down as we operate our daily lives, I predict we would all act more carefully and avoid the majority of injuries from occurring in the first place.

So maybe a snow-fall reminder is exactly what we need right now as the post-holiday crunch hits businesses and communities across Saskatchewan.

I challenge you all to permanently adopt a little of this slow-moving lifestyle concept into your regular lives.