Slow living in a broken world
The world operates at fever pitch and wants us to match that frenzy. But some of us are sensing into the deeper rhythm of the slow turning of the earth as she travels quietly around the sun. We’re learning to attune more to her slow-paced travel and sense that this pace would better suit the unearthing of our own true self. We sense that this is the rhythm at which we might be able to heal ourselves and contribute healing to our world.
How could our true self emerge into the frenetic blinking of neon lights and the supersonic speed and violence of modern living? We have to disentangle our lives from the broken culture and allow ourselves to become attuned to Mother Earth's own rhythm and the slow change of her seasons. We want to be with her in the gloaming as day turns into night, the sun sets, and the moon rises in a darkening sky. We want to live by her rhythms because only then can our own true rhythm really emerge.
If our lives are set to the clock of culture, we must panic and fret that nothing is getting done. But when we re-attune to the slow roll of the earth in the deep curvature of the sky, then there is all the time in the world for our true self to grow, to heal and evolve. Then, it’s not blinking lights, but the soft glow of an evening sunset across the lakeshore, or the gentle caress of the rays of the sun as he rises at dawn. Then our rhythm matches the rhythm of the earth and she attunes us to her own self and we -re-learn how to heal and how to offer our medicine to the world.
I did nothing but let go the urgent timetable of the world's to-do list, and as a violin will vibrate spontaneously in response to another violin, I let the deep rhythm of the Earth attune me to herself. Now, my pace is slow, now, my listening is deep. Now my speaking is quiet, and my life is calm. I live with the seasons and I learn from them where I am and how I am. I listen to the earth, and I turn to her for wisdom. In the quiet I hear an inner voice guiding me always. In the silence I hear the voice of Love comfort me. In the stillness I feel my belonging to myself and to all of life. In this peace I find peace. In this joy I find my own joy.
What fools we are to trade this slow and measured way of being for the measuring tape of culture that would tell us that we’re not measuring up; that we’re not moving fast enough, that we’re not speaking or living loud enough. Those who try to fit a whole life into a day miss the life that is in the day.
If we are to heal, if our world is to heal, we all need to slow down and learn to move with the grace of the earth as she rolls slowly around the sun. The earth will attune us to her slow rhythms and the movement of her seasons, and in being attuned we can begin to live aligned with Nature, with Life, and we can begin to heal and learn how to contribute healing to others.
Artwork © Allison Cooke . @ allison.n.cooke