Is It Time to Slow Down?

Lettie Cowman, the writer over a century ago of the devotional Streams in the Desert, told a story about an Englishman who took it upon himself to explore the deep jungles of Africa. He brought with him a plethora of items to keep him company and to allow him his usual style of living.

Because of his abundance of supplies, he hired several men from one of the local villages to carry his goods throughout his trek in the jungle. On the first day all traveled at a swift pace and then rested in the evening. The second day was similar to the first. The Englishman was quite pleased with his progress.

However, on the third day when the Englishman got up eager to begin, he was surprised to find the men of the village sitting in a circle. When the Englishman asked the reason for this slow start and delay, the guide for the trek said, “They are waiting. They can’t move any further until their souls have caught up with their bodies.”

Lettie Cowman completed her devotional with this thought: “This whirling, rushing life which so many of us live does for us what that march did for those poor tribesmen. But here is the difference: They knew what they needed to restore life’s balance; too often we do not.”

Wow! Isn’t it amazing that over a century ago, our culture was considered fast paced? If back then, we were moving too quickly, what does that say for our pace of life now?

Robert Frost wrote a poem, which suggests that we always have choices in life. 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Are we thinking carefully about how we are living our lives?  If we were to choose a path that lets our souls catch up with our bodies, I want to suggest to you…that could make all the difference!

Several years ago, I started doing what I came to call “early morning gardening”.

Early morning gardening is basically time spent, usually early in the morning, out in nature.  And hopefully almost every day.

During “early morning gardening”, I garden.

But it’s not gardening to get the flower beds finished, it’s gardening to spend some time outside.

To have a time of quiet, to listen to the birds singing, to the wind blowing.  It’s a time to see the flowers blooming, to add water to the birdbaths.  To just spend time and to “be”.

Early morning gardening  has to do with slowness of pace and of accomplishing things little by little.  It has to do with taking time to observe… to really look at God’s gift of nature around us… whether it is listening to a bird singing, the different colors of the violets blooming in spring, the unique shape of a pine cone, or feeling the touch of the gentle breeze on my face.

It’s being able to identify birds or bugs or even the seasons by their specific sounds.

It’s a time of quiet.

A time of peace.

A time of joy.

An article in Prevention Magazine from May of 2013 tells us that studies show that as little as five minutes of walking in a natural setting can increase our self-esteem, boost our mood, and slash high blood pressure.  And a 2011 Scottish study found that being outdoors ups mental health benefits by 50% over exercising in a gym.

There’s something to be said about spending regular time out in nature.

Jesus did it.  Scripture tells us that He often withdrew  to lonely places.

I wonder what He did during that time.  And why did He do it?

If Jesus found benefit in withdrawing to a place of quiet in this way.  I’m thinking we might find benefit as well.

What’s your favorite deadly sin? Mine is gluttony. I get lots of practice with gluttony.

When I was on sabbatical several years ago, I started doing crafts. Knitting and crochet, beaded jewelry, making cards, watercolor and acrylic paint, and even making homemade beauty products. And as all crafters know, you need supplies. My day would consist of going to the “big three” craft stores:  JoAnn’s, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels. Each store has coupons where you can get 40% off one item, and since I wanted to save money, I only bought one item at each store with the coupon. The next day I would do it again, and the next day, and the next day… As Joshua Becker, of becomingminimalist.com says, “I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies.” I bought more craft supplies than I used.

And then, again in order to “save money,” I got on several lists of Kindle books on sale. I ended buying hundreds of Kindle books for $1.99 and $2.99. And read very few of them. At first I told myself I was creating my own library. If I wanted to read something in the future, I could choose one of the books I bought on sale. Problem is, I didn’t. Instead, I bought more books.

One of the books I bought on sale, that I actually did read, was The Year of Less:  How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders. Cait talks about her spending freeze, and how it affected her life. I thought about doing that, too. For a minute or two. Even though I didn’t do a spending freeze, I did get off the Kindle sale lists.

For Lent this year, I took the Facebook app off my phone. Even though I value aspects of Facebook, I was spending too much time on it. I left it on my computer, and still accessed it at times. But I spent much less time on it. After Lent was over, I left it off. Until a week ago when I got sucked back in. It drained time and energy from my life, and caused a huge amount of frustration.

It’s time for a fast.

One of my favorite podcasters, Brooke Snow, talked about quitting social media. She took the challenge author Cal Newport issued, and the difference was amazing. In one month, she wrote 3/4 of a book, started composing music again, sewed a quilt, and read six books in the 30 days of the challenge. At the end of the month, she decided to do it for another month, and then another and another.

The spiritual practice of fasting is going to help control my gluttony.

I don’t want my compulsions, whether for craft supplies, Kindle books, or Facebook, to control my life. I want time:  time for God, time for silence and rest, time to do the things God is calling me to do. I think it’s time to renew my Lenten practice of fasting from Facebook.

Do you remember Aesop’s famous fable about the tortoise and the hare?  How they were both running a race and everyone thought for sure that the hare would easily be the winner?  Why wouldn’t he be?  He had a spring in his step.  He was faster.  He knew for sure he would win…he had the confidence for it.

But if you remember, it was actually the tortoise that won the race!  How could he?  He only walked.  And he walked slowly, at that.  I’m not sure that the tortoise even had any thought that he would win.  We know the results, though!  The tortoise wins!  The hare was a distant second.  And why?

Because, according to the fable, slow and steady wins the race.

Years ago when our kids were younger, we would say this quote:  “Slow and steady wins the race, fast and shaky falls on its face.”  What I hoped our kids would understand was that faster was not always better and that sometimes moving slowly and steadily actually can accomplish more.

Recently, Suzanne told me about a project called the 100 Day Creative Project.  This Creative Project encourages people to pick out some form of creativity and do it for 100 days straight.  Well, I was intrigued by the idea and decided I would like to try the project.  I finally hit on the idea of taking 10 minutes a day to work at organizing in my home office/studio.  It didn’t sound super creative, but it was certainly something that needed to get done.

My studio is a room that I love, but it wasn’t working very well.   You know how it goes.  Office/studio had become office/studio/I have no clue where to put this room.  And instead of having a workable creative space, I basically had a messy storage room.  So, here comes the 10 minute creative project.  I have worked on it now for a little over 30 days.  And the results are definitely going in the right direction.  Some areas of the studio are now remarkably usable.  I know where folders are and paperclips.  I can easily find the dictionary and my journals.  Folders for community work are easy to put my hands on.  Progress!

Don’t get me wrong, it is good thing that this is a 100 day project because there is still much to sort through and organize, but I am finding a quiet joy in seeing this room come closer to being the creative space that I long for it to be.

Slow and steady, in this case, is winning the race!

Hope it makes a difference for you, as well!

My spiritual director, Amy, asked me, “Do you trust God’s time?”

For years, I’d felt called to lead retreats.

In 2010, I started training to become a spiritual director. In 2013, I went to a conference to examine my call. Again, I felt a strong call to lead retreats.

But nothing happened.

One person told me she started her retreat ministry by writing letters to churches and offering her services. Great idea, but I didn’t do it.

Another person said she learned to lead retreats by going to them. I loved the idea, and went to several, but still nothing happened.

When Amy asked me if I trusted God’s time, I said yes. I do trust God’s time. I wasn’t worried about God’s time. I was worried I wasn’t doing something I was supposed to do. Amy asked me what I needed, and my first response was “courage” and “discipline.” But as I prayed about it, I realized what I really needed was a partner and a deadline.

The conversation with Amy was in February, 2017. Several months later, after the Easter sunrise service, Kathy Noble, a pastor in a neighboring church, suggested we meet for lunch and get to know one another. Within five minutes of sitting down for lunch, we realized we both wanted to lead retreats. So we put our first Come Away, My Beloved retreat on the schedule for September. Just a few months after praying for a partner and a deadline, I had both.

Those years in between my first call to lead retreats and my meeting with Kathy, when I thought nothing was happening, God was preparing me. I was learning about websites, blogs, online classes, photography and video, as well as different prayer practices. And I was training to become a spiritual director and attending retreats. All things we’re using in our retreat ministry.

Teilhard de Chardin says, “Trust in the slow work of God.” Do I trust God’s time? You bet I do. Even when it looks like nothing is happening.