Faith Venture

A flock of red-winged blackbirds with a few Brewer’s blackbirds covered the lawns outside my office window this morning. 

As if on a hidden signal, they all took off in flight.

Except for one. I saw a black head pop up above the grass. It looked around for a few seconds. The bird then took off in the same direction as its flock even though the flock was out of sight by that time.

How often we humans are like that. The flock takes off—say they all join an online social network. Those of us not in the main flock look up, wonder where they all went, then take off to join them.

I turned. On the bookcase opposite is a collection of books called the Great Books of the Western World. They are organized along a timeline from the ancient Greeks to William James and Freud. I noticed how some are grouped. There were Platonists/neo-Platonists and Aristotelians. Then the ones who shattered the idea of mind/body divorcing mind from spirit from body to those trying to reconnect. Sort of like following a new flock.

We think we have the final ideas, the final answers, the complete truth. Following a flock. Then the next generation comes along. A new flock that everyone will follow for a while.

Then there are those of us who just don’t feel like part of the flock pursuing new ideas.

I heard an interview with a former US Navy SEAL. He left me with a phrase that repeats in my mind.

Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

This relates to other advice I’ve received and to my life experiences.

Once I rushed through everything trying to do three or four things at once. I was frustrated with progress as well as tired. Driving in traffic, I’d speed up only to be stopped at the next traffic light in the slow lane passed by the cars I’d just passed.

Rushing didn’t get me anywhere faster. Maybe just a speeding ticket.

I’ve not only learned that phrase, I have also learned to embody it.

I concentrate on one thing at a time. That doesn’t mean that a hundred thoughts don’t pop up. They do. But I’ve learned to move past and come back to task.

Don’t rush the conversation.

Allow time to get where I’m going. If circumstances make me late, well, then I’m late. That’s life.

Even eating. Chew more. Swallow less. Slow and smooth.

Even working out. Some things require intensity, but don’t rush through (well, unless you’re doing sprints!). I look at the dumbbells. Select the weights. Raise slowly to extension. Lower slowly and smoothly. Do my sets. Amazingly the workout is done before I know it.

In your spiritual life, it’s the same. When you read–read. When you meditate–meditate. Allow the time. Savor it even.