Yesterday I picked up my grand-daughter in my car. As we went whizzing down the freeway, she wriggled and squirmed in her toddler car seat and made soft, but unrelenting protest noises at her situation.  I fed her crackers, not because she was hungry, but because it provided a distraction for her and relief for me!

When we got to my home there were noisy and messy tradesmen working in the kitchen, we went for a walk with Pixie in her stroller-pram.  And she was a different child.  Together we could point at interesting things and learn new words. Point to crows perching on rubbish bins as they pulled out ragged pieces of rubbish.  Point to magpies poking their beaks into the grass as they strutted around the lawns. Point to little willy wagtails as they pivoted and pirouetted with their erect black and white tail feathers. Point and exclaim at tiny, silver planes high up in the blue sky. Point at dogs taking their owners for a walk. Living life in the slow lane opens up whole new worlds – of sight, of sound, of colour, texture and smells.  And you can learn new words, practice saying them and laugh at the weird world. It’s not a hard-and-fast Law of the Universe, but slowing down gives you room to breathe and create.

Living life like you’re whizzing down the freeway can carry destructive seeds. It’s much slower to plant a seed. Or a garden.  And watch it grow.  But it’s more creative and fulfilling. Destroying a garden with a fire, a hoe or a slasher can be quickly done and leaves havoc and heartache in its wake. Crafting slowly a book, a poem or a song. Or turning wood or fine-tuning a car. Baking a cake. And done with care and lack of speed.  And all this can be quickly and easily destroyed with a hammer or a match.

The same with the lives I touch. It takes much more time to build into another’s life. With carefully chosen words and actions.  And it can so easily be crushed or destroyed – by careless actions, angry words quickly and thoughtlessly done. I have so many shortcomings and failures, and often behind them is my impatient spirit.  I want quick resolutions, fast answers and relief of felt tensions. But speed can often be destructive or limiting. I need to walk more slowly and look all around me. Learn to live more calmly with tensions and unresolved griefs.  I need to take more slow breaths.  To live a life in praise of Slow!