“We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.”
– Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
__________
The actual speed of life
is so much slower
we could have lived
exactly seven times as long
as we did.
– Jim Harrison, Time Suite, After Ikkyu
__________
It’s easy to let life rush by like the blur of hedgerows through the train window.
Who is driving the train?
Where am I going?
Why is it going so fast?
Good questions, perhaps not asked enough.
How do I slow down time?
Wouldn’t it be nicer to go for a walk?
Then I could make out the individual leaves in the hedge.
I can also swing my head round to see the sky, the ground, where I’m going and where I’ve come from.
Life at walking pace.
I think walking and reading work at the same physical speed.
I don’t need to rush either of them. Why bother?
Rushing will just ruin both activities.
I’ll add writing, to make a trifecta of slowness and attention.
Writing these posts I slow this part of the day to a pace where I can think and focus.
Because I write them every day, these moments of slowness accumulate.
My mind enjoys its walk.
I gain a little more life.
Conversations With Quotations 