Wise words

'There is more to life than making it go faster'
Ghandi

I am still thinking about what will be challenging for me during the walk - apart from my feet and the rest of my body taking turns in hurting. I like my own space for example and great ingredients cooked simply. But one of the things that will require the biggest adjustment is our inability to get anywhere fast when we have to walk every step of the way. I am one of the fast brigade; when I have decided on something, it has to happen there and then and I will not stop until it has. I will search for the fastest connection of trains, research at length (!) the shortest routes, drive speedily, get wound up when others slow me down and lately even lament the fact that my broadband connection is a little sluggish.

Anyway, I will have to adjust on the walk and slooooooooooooooooooooooow dooooooown. I am looking forward (in a gently dreading kind of way) to the perspective change that will take place. When trains were first introduced people were sick on a regular basis because their vision could not adjust to the 'fast' motion. I know how they must have felt when we sat on the Shinkansen train from Tokyo to Kyoto - I could only look straight ahead and even then I felt slight sick.

Gary and I recently tried to judge the time it would take us to walk across a gently sloping valley and up the hill on the other site. We were miles apart in our estimates and probably both wrong. At the end of the walk we will be pros in guess the distance!

I am not the only one thinking about the speeding up of information and time. The very resourceful Elisa send me this very interesting slide show (don't bother with the head set - the music is quite annoying). She is wondering if the shift will take us to discover "values, trust & best communication practises". To help ponder that question I can suggest a read of the Tao Te Ching. Here is one with several translations on the same page or read a clever version summarising the Tao's message in todays language.

I was just talking to my sister Ulrike who is preparing a talk about the need to change views around time management. I see how much more information my niece and nephew have to cope with. Felix who is 6 worked out by observation that all information he will ever require is available to him through google. He pronounces this practice goggling - great word!

We are going on a walk - how will you slow down?