The river is a bit higher than I would have expected it to be today… but there was still just enough space by the shore for me to walk down to the water, find a fallen tree trunk, and simply sit in the silence embellished by the lightly gurgling flow…
As I look around, I notice that the far side of the tree trunk I am sitting on has grown an entire ecosystem of its own… vegetation that looks like ground cover, with the tiniest of white flowers sprinkled amid the green… hundreds of them like stars on a clear night sky… except some of them are overflowing the trunk and making their way to the shale stones that are being lapped by the gentlest of ripples coming ashore from the center of the river…
The sound of falling pebbles from the other shore interrupts the mind’s wanderings, as part of the rock face sends its evening offering to the water below…
I look up to the top of the small cliff face and notice tall trees, young and old, hanging on the edge, many of them with their roots clearly exposed, entangled with the trees next to them as if in an eternal bonding until they are called to immerse themselves into the river below…
In the distance, the road bridge and the walking bridge downstream have not much activity except for the wind bringing them messages from the upstream side as it plays with the leaves of the overhanging trees on its way to them…
I notice that not a single insect bothers me as I sit today, in a location where usually the mosquitoes will find me in less than thirty seconds…
The meeting of the elements without invites the calm created by the meeting of the elements within…
My ‘walk’ today has been a trickle, and that is perhaps by design or maybe a mirror of the flow of the water. I am grateful for what is given today, for if not for my slowing down and sitting at length, I would have missed seeing the play of the water with the shale, the fallen tree trunk’s ecosystems, the trees hanging in suspended animation across the other shore, and so much more.
If I hadn’t slowed down to sit and spend as much time as it took me to write this post ‘in the moment’, I would have surely recorded more ‘steps’, but what of that? Distance traveled is often a poor indicator of what has been accomplished within. My heart rate is down by 10 points in the 10 or more minutes of sitting. I spend the next few minutes breathing at a few breaths a minute. I open my eyes and it is as if the river has stilled to take another look at me and joined me in the slowing down.
I look around and it’s perhaps time to go explore a bit, check out some backlighting on the trees in the forest, and then head home. Thanks for visiting, the river, the tree trunk, the shale stones, the chickweeds and sunflowers seem to say. Do slow down more often. We enjoy sitting with you.
I had figured I would spend twenty minutes or so slowing down today after the work day. The ‘walk’ took exactly sixty minutes – 534 to 634pm. I didn’t time or plan it that way, but that’s how long it sometimes takes to truly slow down. And who am I to argue with that? You can’t rush Art and its creation within, can you?
All the pieces of art that are still cherished after centuries — were they not created in intervals of time and space where the artist was working at their own pace? If so, then why would one imagine that our heart’s work can be accomplished without learning the art of slowing down?
Let the world go on on its own pace. If you know what you want, then the beat of that ‘unstruck music of eternity’ will set your heart’s pace. May we make friends with our own beat, and may we find bliss in all the moments of slowing down and listening to the heart.
Kumud
P.S. Join us for our weekly gathering and twitter chat, Sunday July 31 2022 at 9amET / 1pmGMT / 630pm India with the #SpiritChat community. We will enjoy a bit of slowing down in each other’s company, and mark another year of walking together. Namaste. – @AjmaniK
The #SpiritChat Community 