Hurry Up and Slow Down

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's a life lesson that keeps presenting me with opportunities to become more aware and grow. I think I have had more trouble with patience than almost anything. It's part of who I am... I am eternally patient when I am teaching, when I am supporting a friend, when I am focussed outward... but when it comes to my own needs or wants, my resolve flies out the window like a trapped bird. If I want something to happen, if I want to accomplish something or learn something new, as soon as I decide that I want this thing, whatever it is, it needs to happen yesterday.

For eight months now, I have been trying to recover from a nerve injury in my arm. Progress has been excruciatingly slow. It feels as though I take a couple of steps forward and then I push myself a little too far and stumble backward.. again and again. I can't do the full body exercises that I want to do... I can't restore my strength, I can't do physical activities that I really want to do... until. Until my body decides to heal completely. Until I stop the battle within myself, surrender to the situation and allow my body the space to heal. 

I wonder what it is within me that has decided that I am on rush time? What's the hurry? The trees don't bud until their limbs feel the gradual warmth of the sun. And the blossoms don't open up to the world until the time is right and they are confident they can flourish. Spring doesn't happen overnight. Most essential things don't. Everything evolves with its own particular flow.

Perhaps I need to absorb more fully what I see through my lens. Each beautiful thing I observe has brought itself into fullness at a slow and gentle pace. Even decay has its own unhurried process. Nature is providing me with an answer, if I would just slow down and take her seriously.

Feel it in Your Wings

It is the spirit that knows Beauty, that has music in its soul 

and the color of sunsets in its headkerchiefs;

that can dance on a flaming world and make the world dance, too.

~ W.E.B. Du Bois

Windows

We've all heard the phrase the eyes are windows to the soul.
Well, could windows be eyes for the soul?

I was on my way home from a friend's house yesterday when I saw an elderly man standing in front of an antique shop window. He was wearing beige trousers that were rolled at the ankle, a long trench coat and a black hat... he looked so distinguished and gentlemanly. He was leaning on his cane, peering into the window at one of the items on display. I wondered what held his attention... Was it a trinket that reminded him of a boyhood possession? A nostalgic object that caused his heart to skip over his long lost love? Whatever it was, it had a hold on him... he moved ever so slightly as though he was going to walk away, and then turned back again into the window, bending over a little to get a closer look at the object of his affection.
Clearly something in that window stirred his soul.

I felt that very same stirring when I woke up to sunlight surging through my bedroom window after days and weeks of cloud and grey. It was enough to make me tumble out of bed and reach for my camera. And after a few quick shots, and a moment to pause and bathe in the beautiful light, I fell back into bed... and closed my eyes.


ps... if you are craving the light, visit the Four and soak up the beauty there.