“You are not too old and it is not too late to dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret.” ― Rilke

I remember through all the years I worked how I juggled tasks and information as if I were a circus performer. It seemed, in my memory now, to come easy, but in my 70’s, juggling is harder. I believe I can do multiple things at once, yet in the next moment, I’m sweeping up shattered glass that flew under the refrigerator when one of my tasks slipped from my hand. Sometimes things don’t get done. Decades of family photo albums still sit imprisoned in an old chest.

The point where “life calmly gives out its own secret” might well say it’s time to slow down. In this time of life, hours are more precious, and by slowing down, we can be more present — like we never were before in our hurriedness. Amit Ray writes “Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.” Those present moments so quickly become but a memory, so take the time to grace your mundane moments as much as the exhilarating ones.

Remember Louis L’Amour’s words: “Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.” Everything around us is speeding up: the highways, travel, competitions, the demands of everyday life like the five verification codes I had to retrieve from my email just to complete the online form to renew my driver’s license. Demands of today’s security. More is demanded of us at each turn. Yet, just washing dishes or watering your plants can be a prayer. Let it be that.

In Mark Nepo’s The Book of Soul, he writes that “the antidote to speed is to hold things and ask for their stories.”

Photo by Wendell Clendennen