Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to write this piece. I struggle terribly with trying to do too much and am trying to learn to listen to my inner clock for a clue on when to stop. I think when we get into the habit of multi-tasking, our minds become accustomed to the hectic lifestyle (though our bodies often protest). Then, when we do have a moment to relax, there is no rest because our minds are going over our to-do lists to make sure there isn’t something that needs our attention. I also think this is a tool of the enemy, because we forget how to be still and know that God is God. And when we forget that, stress and anxiety are sure to follow.

As a red flag to parents, I have also seen this play out in children. Some of my students never have dinner at home. They eat and do homework in the car on the way between school, art class, swimming, and karate. Many times they don’t get in until passed the time they should be in bed. When doing activities like nature study, you can see the angst rising in them because they hate to be still and take time with anything. (Did I hear someone say ADHD?:) Then, the parents come to me and ask if their child needs medication so he can focus?! Let us be mindful of the habits of mind we can help (or hinder) in our children when scheduling extra-curricular activities.

Jen

I’ve started collecting quotes and poems!
Great idea!

Bonnie

I think I am starting to understand why our blog is not the way we might have expected….our authors and our responders are making works of slow food! What did we expect?? These entries can not be consumed on the run, and the resulting growth is not easily shared in a reply box, but life, discipline, and atmosphere are a sure result. I would like to publish these posts…such treasures and wisdom. I am grateful to each of you who are building this beautiful community.

It is ironic that we rush children when their pace is most likely given to inform us.

Bonnie, thank you for these lovely quotes. They are beautiful and remind me that poets are the champions of a evenly paced life, don’t you think? Wouldn’t it be fun to create an anthology of time related poetry? It could be a ‘party favor’ at the next conference!

I found a fascinating article online about the concept of time in narnia…http://www.narniafans.com/?id=236

melanie

This summer I’ve been taking a group of about 25 children on Nature Walks. This is a new experience for many of them and I’ve been frustrated as the children rush to get through the hike. Sadly, when a child stops to notice something or ask a question they are often hurried along by the other adults on the walk with us. I keep trying to gently ask what it is we are trying to get to. The entire point of these hikes is the journey. As I’ve pondered how I can slow everyone down I’ve started to wonder how much of my life is spent the same way; rushing, rushing, rushing to get somewhere when the real joy is in the journey.

Melanie, this post is so very deep. I will be coming back to it again and again. Thank you.

Robert Ferrar Capon wrote in The Supper of the Lamb
to look at an onion for an hour. Sounds sort of like
nature study! “If an hour can be spent on one onion,
think how much regarding it took that old Russian
who looked at onions and church spires long enough to
come up with St. Basil’s Cathedral.” His book slowed me
down to think more deeply about the feasting at my kitchen table!

Also Phyllis Tickle’s writings about the Divine Hours
and The Shaping of a Life include this slowing down
to real time.

A good recitation for all is On Time by John Milton to
say to yourself when the day pushes into a frenzy:

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets’ pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain. ….

And Wendell Berry’s The Art of the Commonplace :
from A Native Hill:

“Perhaps it is to prepare to hear someday the music
of the spheres that I am always turning my ears to the music of the streams. There is indeed a music in the streams, but it not for the hurried. It has to be loitered
by and imagined.”

Bonnie