I make my lunches for work. Usually lots of veggies, some beans, or lentils and some tasty spices. I eat a selection of colors and textures. I freeze portions in small containers to take with me.
I was thawing some on our stove for lunch, hungry after a busy morning. It takes a little while. I was getting impatient. Some thoughts visited, "if I went to the shop I could get lunch quickly", "I wouldn't have to wait". "I want to eat, I'm hungry now". I was surprised by these thoughts. Laughing seeing this conditioned thinking.
We have developed a strange relationship to speed. Maybe we could call it the cult of speed. Speed seems one of our modern pathologies. It now helps us define distance, how long will it take? It increases profits. It now signifies importance. It is supposed to give us more leisure time. It is having a determinative effect on the value and importance of things. It is closely associated with convenience.
Things we used to consider important, a slow cooked meal, a well researched story, a leisurely afternoon with family or friends, are being emptied of importance because they are not fast enough. Likewise things we have thought of as unimportant, even superficial, are now given importance because they arrive with speed. Oh dear, has it become a virtue.
No longer the best news, just the fastest news. One or two tweets make a story, that rushes around the world. No longer the best health care, looking after a whole life and community, just the fastest most convenient resolution of this one problem. I don't have time to cook, exercise, meditate, my life is so fast. To say we are busy is to be worth more. We may literally get paid more for going fast, even not accomplishing much, just going fast. To say we are not busy is be worth less. We quickly recycle the things we see and hear across our lives timelines. Little time to read, contemplate and think things through.
Thinking, reflection and assimilating things, our life, take time. Really working on what foods suit us best takes time to think, reflect, and feel. It may be relatively fast to lift more and more weight, but feeling how to most effectively use our breathing, joints and muscles takes time. Knowing what work is appropriate for us and how to do it may take years. Raising our children takes thought over time, over years. Good relationships require thought, reflection and only grow over time.
We need time to think new things, to feel new things, to create. It takes time to exceed conventional wisdom and the common application of the norm. Slow thinking, reflection, contemplation breaks up the settled. Savour life. Just this is it.
Submitted June 22, 2017 at 08:54PM by obvom http://ift.tt/2sw5I28
