Sunday's good word(s) :: slow time
We were half way down the block when I asked if I could run back, if he could hold all the dogs.
“For what?”
“My watch.”
“Why?”
“To track my walk.”
I lost the ask while also winning in the reminding—the walk is still a walk without the steps counted. The fresh air and being and seeing still happened even without the mileage tracked. Easy like a Sunday morning, indeed...
The family and I went to cheer on the home team today. There wasn’t a W, but there was baseball.
On the way home I told them that a big part of my heart that loves this game is wrapped up in the being of it all. When we are high school, summer ball, MLB watching, we are there. The game and the people who go with provide a meditative removal from just about anything beyond those innings, snacks, conversations, and eyes on the field.
As I readied some food tonight, I realized that the same sentiment extends to chopping, sautéing, and being in the moment of prep. Distraction and heat do not mix well. It’s hard to check your phone when your hands are elbow deep with ingredients. Maybe a big reason why I love cooking is in the immersive nature of it all… the senses, the focus, the all hands on for creating and tasting and adjusting.
While the chicken and rice for tomorrow night baked, we sat out back to wrap up the full weekend. As he added to the fire, I thought about the tending that goes with… the minding it takes to build up the flames while also keeping them the right amount of going.
Attention, presence, care—for who and what is in our midst.
"When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.
The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.”
"For One Who Is Exhausted, a Blessing"
by John O’Donohue, from “To Bless the Space Between Us"