LIVE SLOW ENOUGH

“Live slow enough and there is only the beginning of time.”

~ Anonymous

Follow anything in its act of being - a snowflake falling, ice melting, a loved one waking - and we are ushered into the ongoing moment of the beginning, the quiet instant from which each breath starts. What makes this moment so crucial is that it continually releases the freshness of living. The key to finding this moment and all its freshness of living. The key to finding this moment and all its freshness, again and again, is in slowing down.

Often, when we are inconvenienced, we are being asked to slow down. When we are delayed in our travel or waiting for a check in a restaurant, we are being asked to open up and look around. When we find ourselves stalled in our very serious and ambitious plans, we are often being asked to re-find the beginning of time. Unfortunately, we are all so high-paced, running so fast to where we want to be, that many of us are forced to slow down through illness or breakage. In this, we are such funny creatures. If we could see ourselves from far enough away, we would seem like a colony of insects running into things repeatedly: thousands of little determined beings butting into obstacles, shaking our little heads and bodies, and running into things again.

Like the Earth that carries us, the ground of our being moves so slowly we take it for granted. But if you should feel stalled, numb, or exhausted from the trails of your life, simply slow your thoughts to the pace of cracks widening, slow your heart to the pace of the earth soaking up rain, and wait for the freshness of the beginning to greet you.

~ Place a dry sponge and a glass of water before you. Set them aside for the moment.

~ Center yourself by letting the energy of all that feels urgent rush through you. Exhale and try to let it go.

~ Now drip a small amount of water on the sponge and, as you breathe slowly, watch how the sponge opens.

~ Keep dripping water on the sponge as you breathe slowly, and feel your heart open.

The Book of Awakening

~ Mark Nepo