I heard a saying this week while listening to a talk by Tim Cope; If you have to rush, rush slowly.
It has resonated with me.
When I read the phrase ‘Slow Textiles’ recently on social media, my initial reaction was a quick turning of the eyes skyward – another slogan to be added to the Hipster Dictionary. Images of fermenting linen danced across my mind. Putting my inner cynic to the side, I let the words linger a little longer.
In so many ways life is on a fast track like never before. We crave convenience to such an extent that we have become not only willing, but eager consumers. Searching out the latest, shiniest, what is trending, being hit, shared, liked, pinned.
Slow, from a conditioned point of view, is tainted with negative interpre
tation; behind the eight ball, not up to speed, yesterday’s news. And yet there is such value in the ability to pause, breath a moment longer, make space for another way, an alternative thought, or if you are brave enough to relinquish the control of inner dialogue, allow just for a moment, no thought at all.
To rush slowly, evoked in me that inner balance. Cope described it as the midway point between passion and patience, between the need to have ambition, to feel propelled forward, to have a goal and yet to be gentle, to tread lightly as you move forward and find the way that honours yourself and others simultaneously.
This creative process, between action and inaction, can take you into the places that are alive and beyond your imagination. It happens when you are living in cooperation with something that is greater than the small version of yourself. It takes an inner bravery that is very quite, very still. It doesn’t have slogans or a tag and is far too often missing from our lives today.
To rush slowly. What a lovely combination of words to cross my path this week.
Soil to Stars 