Summer Speedos | Field Notes: The Secret Cost of Rushing
Summer Speedos 5: The Speed of Care
What happens when care asks us to slow down?
In this short Summer Speedos field note, Johan Heinrichs reflects on a simple scene outside his front window: a family trying to go for a walk, but moving at the speed of childhood. Rocks needed to be inspected. Sticks needed to be carried. Shoes came untied. Something fell out of the stroller.
They did not get far.
But maybe that was the point.
This episode is a gentle reflection on the pace of care — the kind of love that notices who is struggling, who is falling behind, and who may need more time than everyone else planned for.
Because real care is not always efficient. Sometimes it interrupts the route. Sometimes it changes the schedule. Sometimes it looks like walking slowly enough that no one gets left behind.
In This Episode
Johan reflects on:
why families, churches, neighbourhoods, and communities are not machines
how rushing can quietly leave people behind
why needing more time does not make someone a problem
what Jesus’ willingness to be interrupted can teach us about care
how slowing down can become an act of dignity
the difference between helping someone move forward and pushing them to keep up
A Thought to Carry With You
“People do not become whole on a schedule that is convenient for everyone else. Sometimes love slows down.”
That line sits at the heart of this episode.
It is not a call to slow everything down forever. It is not an excuse to avoid responsibility or ignore healthy boundaries. It is an invitation to pay attention.
Who goes quiet when things move too fast?
Who needs a little more explanation?
Who is healing more slowly than expected?
Who needs trust to be built over more than one conversation?
And who might be getting left behind by the pace we have decided is normal?
Why This Matters
Most of us like progress. We like plans. We like when everyone understands the plan and then, ideally, follows the plan.
But people are not projects.
A child who needs help transitioning, a neighbour who takes time to trust, a friend who is still grieving, or someone in church who needs more patience is not an inconvenience to be managed. They are a person to be honoured.
This episode invites us to see slowness differently. Not as failure. Not as weakness. Not as a waste of time.
Sometimes slowing down is how we say: you matter enough to wait for.
One Small Step This Week
Pay attention to pace.
Notice who seems to disappear when things move quickly. Notice who stops asking questions. Notice who needs patience, not because they are weak, but because they are worth waiting for.
Sometimes care looks like helping someone move forward.
And sometimes it looks like walking slowly enough that they are not left behind.
Listen and Learn More
For more field notes and stories, visit neighbourlypodcast.ca.
To learn more about CarePortal and practical ways to care for families in your community, visit careimpact.ca.
About Neighbourly
Neighbourly is a CareImpact podcast about ordinary people showing extraordinary care. Through honest stories, reflective conversations, and practical takeaways, each episode invites listeners to notice the people around them and take one simple step toward neighbourly care.
Neighbourly is produced in partnership with CareCreatives Company, helping organizations clarify their message through branding, design, websites, and audio production for social good.
Produced By:
Episode transcript Read the full transcript
Summer Speedos Field Note: The Secret Cost of Rushing
Johan Heinrichs: Welcome to Summer Speedos from Neighbourly, our short in-between-season series while Shannon takes a break from her regular interviews. I’m Johan, the producer of the show.
Johan Heinrichs: Some episodes are field notes recorded outside in ordinary places where care actually happens. Others are story field notes, more cinematic reflections that start with a story from history or real life. Either way, we’re paying attention to the small, ordinary ways care, faith, courage, and community show up around us.
Johan Heinrichs: So grab a cold drink or head out on that bike ride, walk, or hike. Enjoy this year’s edition of Summer Speedos from Neighbourly.
Watching From the Front Window
Johan Heinrichs: I’m sitting out in my backyard, enjoying the sounds of the birds and the raindrops falling on my head off the leaves of my tree.
Johan Heinrichs: But nonetheless, I wanted to record this episode because I have something on my mind.
Johan Heinrichs: When we have guests over at our house, we always get comments about the view from our front window. Most houses face more houses across the street. Our house faces another street perpendicular to ours, which gives us a much greater view. We just get to see a whole lot more than most people.
Johan Heinrichs: And there’s a dog park nearby our house, which makes it seem like every other person in our neighbourhood has dogs. It’s a constant flow of people going for walks up and down our street. There are not even any sidewalks on our street. It’s just people walking down the street.
A Family Moving at the Speed of Childhood
Johan Heinrichs: This one day, I watched a family go for what I think they believed was going to be a walk. That was optimistic.
Johan Heinrichs: They had all the right ingredients: a stroller, water bottle, snacks, and parents with the brave look of people who had recently said, “This will be good for us.”
Johan Heinrichs: But they were moving at the speed of childhood, which is not a speed recognized by most fitness apps. One kid stopped for rocks. Another picked up a stick. Someone’s shoe came untied. Something dropped out of the stroller, and they had to stop to go pick it up.
Johan Heinrichs: At one point, they had maybe covered half a block. Emotionally, I’m sure it felt like they had crossed the prairies.
Real Care Often Slows Down
Johan Heinrichs: And what struck me was this: the whole group moved at the pace of whoever was having the hardest time.
Johan Heinrichs: It wasn’t the fastest person. Not the most organized person. Not even the oldest person. The whole group adjusted around the one who needed the most time.
Johan Heinrichs: It was a family acting like a little community. That is both beautiful and deeply inconvenient, which is usually how you know you’ve wandered into real care, because care often interrupts the pace we would prefer.
Johan Heinrichs: I love efficiency. I like a plan. I like when people understand the plan, and then — this is the key — follow the plan.
Johan Heinrichs: But families are not machines. Churches are not machines. Neighbourhoods and communities are not machines. People do not become whole on a schedule that is convenient for everyone else.
Johan Heinrichs: Sometimes love slows down.
Jesus, Interruptions, and the Person in Front of Us
Johan Heinrichs: Not forever. Not in a way that avoids responsibility or lets harm continue, but in a way that says, “You are not a problem because you need more time.” That is deeply dignifying.
Johan Heinrichs: Jesus seemed very comfortable being interrupted. People stopped him on roads, called to him from crowds, reached for him when he was on his way somewhere else, and often he stopped.
Johan Heinrichs: That doesn’t mean he had no boundaries, but it does mean that he wasn’t so committed to the route that he missed the person right in front of him.
Johan Heinrichs: That is uncomfortable for those of us who love routes and schedules and estimated arrival times that don’t include one child developing a meaningful relationship with a worm.
Johan Heinrichs: But care often asks us to notice who is falling behind.
Who Is Being Left Behind?
Johan Heinrichs: In a church, it might be the person who needs more explanation. In a family, the child who can’t transition as quickly as everyone else. In a neighbourhood, the person who needs more than one conversation before trust is built. And in a friendship, someone healing more slowly than we expected.
Johan Heinrichs: The question isn’t, “How do we slow everything down forever?” The question is, “Who is being left behind by the pace I have decided is normal?”
Johan Heinrichs: That is a harder question this week.
The Field Note
Johan Heinrichs: Maybe pay attention to pace. Notice who goes quiet when things move too quickly. Notice who needs patience, not because they are weak, but because they are worth waiting for.
Johan Heinrichs: Sometimes care looks like helping someone move forward, and sometimes it looks like walking slowly enough that they are not left behind.
Johan Heinrichs: That is the field note. Keep noticing.
