Be still

Last week I had one of those days where everything seemed to happening at once. Vital tasks were piling up; big decisions needed to be made; deadlines were brought forward as projects were rearranged by circumstances out of my control. Payments had to be made, presentations had to be prepared and presented. I was swamped. My response to all this was to do everything faster, speed the process up. My logic being that the more tasks I could fit into an hour the faster everything would return to normal. Rushing around like Speedy Gonzales merged into Road Runner worked for a while, but things fell back and soon I was rushing and swamped. Things were now in danger of getting completely out of hand.

What saved me was I remembered wise words that have been tested through out the ages and are as relevant now in the 21st century as they were when they were first verbalised. Every culture seems to have a version of the following proverb:

Waswahili wanasema “haraka haraka haina baraka”

The English: Haste makes waste

A mind that is fast is sick
A mind that is slow is sound
A mind that is still divine
Meher Baba

All human evil comes from this:
a man’s being unable to still still in a room.
Blaise Pascal

The world today is all about speed. How fast we can complete a task, how fast our computers are, how fast our cars are, the quickest route hapa na pale. To an extent that is fine. Who wants a slow computer after all? But although the world moves at what is sometimes breathtaking speed I am beginning to appreciate that our minds work better when they slow down. When we can retreat into our mind and see things clearly. I always used to think, “Haraka haraka haina baraka” referred to physical tasks, now I am convinced it relates mainly to mental tasks, to the mind. Slow down the mind, our ancestors are telling us, and everything else will fall into place.

Martial art film fans can testify how when the film director wants to highlight a special fighter he slows down the fight when we see it in the eyes of that fighter. While for everyone else the fight is progressing at a terrific speed, for the hero the fight is almost in slow motion (a concept brilliant borrowed/highlighted/stolen by the makers of The Matrix trilogy.)

I had the pleasure of attending a school that had its spiritual base in the Quaker tradition of the Christian faith. Quakers, The Religious Society of Friends to use their proper name, have many good practices. The two most famous ones are probably non violence and silence. Quaker meetings place a lot of emphasis on silence. Be still with your thoughts and listen to your heart, to your mind, to your God.

At the Quaker school I attended assembly everyday would finish with around 5 minutes of silence. In addition, every Wednesday for morning assembly the whole school would sit in silence for around an hour. Imagine that. A whole school from Standard 1 all the way to A-Levels, all the teaching staff, in one hall, sitting in silence, for one hour. If anyone wanted to say anything they could stand up and say it to the whole school without fear. For the first few weeks it felt completely strange. After a few months it felt completely normal and even vital to having a productive week. Most Wednesdays no one would stand up to share. Sometimes a couple of people would share something. Mostly though it was silence. Those silent assemblies are something every school should implement!

Well back to my crazy day. I decided to go home and be still for a couple of hours. It didn’t matter that it was the middle of the day or that there were a million things to do. I knew that instead of speeding up which had been my initial response, I needed to slow down completely. To use today’s terminology when your computer is running many programmes and the virtual memory is working overtime sometimes it is easier AND faster to CRTL-ALT-DEL and start all over again. One step back, two steps forward. I went home, I lay down and when I got up I basically restarted my day. Now if I can do that for a crazy day why can’t I do that for a crazy week, a crazy month, a crazy year? I think I can.