Slow down you move too
fast
Approaching my 55th
birthday I am worried at the speed of things around me and within me.
Sitting in T5 Heathrow I
look at human ants scurrying, spraying, carrying and pushing to get to their
destination. I have often felt myself like a washing machine on speed. Even on
holiday I find myself rushing, checking my watch, people watching and checking
the departure board every ten minutes in case the flight is cancelled.
But I have this hunger
and desire.
I want to know rest, deep
rest, soul rest, yet understand that it is as flighty as a butterfly and as
elusive as a mini bar of soap in a bubbling jacuzzi.
It is a fact the Western
world is getting faster, we walk 10% faster than we did 20 years ago, we
process eighty times more information in a single day than we did back then.
Our electronic age has shrunk the world, the bleep of a phone alerts us to
football scores, world news, family fun or an e mail that desperately needs
answering before the day is over.
So what do I, we, do?
I lift up my eyes to the
hills, where does my help comes from? It comes from the Lord, the maker of
heaven and earth, the one who neither tires, nor sleeps and is in control of
all things.
God rested on the seventh
day, and invites me, you and every child to enter in, to kick off our shoes and
switch off all external distractions. In that place alone, with the audience of
one we can more fully know and be fully known. In the contemplative tradition
of the Church to practice soul resting, by three disciplines of recollection,
quiet and union.
I am once again hearing the
refrain from Simon and Garfunkle
