04 Aug Time Speeds Up
Somehow it is August. I do not know how this happened. My dad told me it would be this way: that as I got older time would begin to speed up, with months flying by like days and years flying by like months. As usual, Dad was right.
I am not a woman who likes to sweat, so August is not my favorite month. Having said that, I do appreciate the fact that in August, life often “downshifts” just a bit. Perhaps it is the weather. It is just too hot and sticky to move very fast. At work this brief reprieve offers me an opportunity to think and plan for the rest of the year as well as to address a few of the piles that sit in my office, mocking me. At home and at work, it offers me the chance to slow down and breathe—in, out, in out. More slowly—in..…out..…in..…out.
In sorting through another pile this morning, I discovered this poem. I don’t know where I got it or who wrote it, but I certainly know why I saved it. I share it as a reminder to us all to slow down this hot August day.
Slow me down Lord
Ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind
Steady my hurried pace
with a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me amidst the confusion of my day
the calmness of the everlasting hills
Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles
with the soothing music of the singing streams
that live in my memory.
Help me to know
the magical restoring power of sleep
Teach me the art
of taking minute vacation
of slowing down to look at a flower
to chat with a friend
to pat a dog
to read a few lines from a good book.
Remind me each day of the fable
of the hare and the tortoise
that I may know that the race
is not always to the swift
that there is more to life
than measuring speed.
Let me look upward
into the branches of the towering oak
and know that it great and strong
because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord
and inspire me to send my roots
deep into the soil
of life’s enduring values
that I may grow towards the stars
of my enduring destiny.
Yours for the Kingdom,
Michelle
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