Slowness Saves Sacred Seconds

You can save an endless amount of time by doing things slowly. And I do mean endless.

    Usually when people say, "Haste makes waste," they mean that doing a job quickly makes it more likely you will make a mistake and have to do it over again.

    But there are more important Truths buried in this saying.

    When we frantically rush through practical affairs, we miss out on noticing what we are doing. This wouldn't be such a big deal except that a busy mind gets less done. A preoccupied mind is an inefficient mind. By not paying attention, we can end up distracted and out of touch with the facts.

    But in the saying "Haste makes waste" lies an even more important insight. A profound spiritual Truth.

    When we are mindful of ourselves, our surroundings, and our actions, we not only save time, we get to keep it.

    Experiences we aren't conscious of are lost to us forever. This is more than cherished personal reflection time we sacrifice for the sake of making a living in a world that demands so much of us. When we mindlessly occupy ourselves with worries or tasks, we throw out minutes, days and even years unnecessarily.

    And I'm not just talking about how by being aware we can preserve our life experiences in our memory. This is not just about saving the good times so we can enjoy telling stories in a retirement home. I'm talking about conserving something Divine.

    When something takes place, it remains true forever that it happened. Truths may evolve. They may be relative to circumstances. But if you help a handicapped person cross the street, the fact that you did this will remain forever true.

    That means that even moments of time - even microscopic instants of whatever that fourth dimension of temporal stuff is - are eternal. Infinite. Boundless. Somehow transcendental. Beyond words.

    And if an inexpressible taste of infinity isn't Sacred and Divine, I don't know what is.

    So by going slowly enough to be present to life, we can, in a sense, talk to God. This is more than participating in a seemingly supernatural beauty. This is owning time - keeping it, hanging onto it as our personal property - in a joint partnership with the Lord. And knowing that our property rights will never be violated. We can possess a little piece of heaven forever.

    Or to put the whole matter in practical terms: There really aren't any worldly or otherworldly problems that can't be solved by taking a few deep abdominal breaths, exhaling them restfully, and then looking at the world with a fresh, open, childlike awareness that we then proceed to cultivate diligently and act in harmony with.