Slowing Down
‘It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
And let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do…’- Tupac Shakur, 1998
{A blog post written in early 2020}
My daughter, Maya, is not only my favourite subject for photography, but she is one of my greatest teachers and sources of inspiration.
Motherhood is an awakening in itself, a rebirth into a new chapter of life. If there’s one lesson which I have been continually learning through Maya over the last fourteen months, it is to slow down. More than ever, I am surrendering to life’s flow.
Even as I started to write this blog post, I felt like I was striving from a fear-based mentality in order to produce something with some kind of urgency. But as I surrendered my restless attempts and eased my nervous system, whilst Maya pitter pattered happily next to me in the sunshine, the words started to flow. Children really are the example of an unhurried life. I feel in light of current circumstances of the lockdowns initiated by the coronavirus, perhaps the slower ways of childhood are a lesson for us all, and healthy change is upon us even if we can’t see it right now.
The current global pandemic has had me questioning whether the complete shut down of our society’s way of living is actually alluding to the bigger dis-ease within society: the dis-ease of doing too much. Whilst I don’t believe that God orchestrates harm such as a virus, I feel that whatever is at play will ultimately serve a higher purpose and times are changing for the better.
I wonder if we as humanity will accept this invitation from God, from all that Creation and the Universe is teaching us, to rest?
As Jesus says in the Bible:
’Behold I stand at the door and knock...’
Will we accept the invitation to truly enter in to a place of ‘doing’ from a place of well-being? And from this place perhaps we can reform the way that way have been chaotically living, working and consuming in modern life. My prayer is that we as humanity, will learn not just from the lock down but from the slow down. That we may turn inwards and find treasure. That, as we are able to get fresh air in our quieter days, we will look to nature and learn her ways.
Love, or God’s, ways, to me, are easy and light, and a doorway into more rooted ways of living. I personally feel the call to slower and more nourishing ways of living; to create things with my hands again and to grow organic vegetables and herbs in the garden which bless my family.
Slower living, for me, also means to strip back on unnecessary monetary spending and to share my energy more wisely, and to live intentionally and as presently as possible.
When I look at Maya, I am moved to create this sustainable life more than ever, because I’m in this life for the long haul. And I want to be well for it.