So, since hearing Heidi Baker speak on living ‘low and slow’, I’ve tried to remember this at key points in my day. She spoke really well about being engaged in humility and our need to live at a speed which stops us noticing opportunities to bless others.
My days are always very busy and I don’t want to miss out on little meetings and moments with people, preferring to engage in the busyness rather than giving people my time and attention. I’ve noticed a change. This week a student asked me to pray for her before she went into her exam. I’d normally smile and nod with a “will do” whilst walking on, but I decided to take the time to listen to her and asked her if she wanted me to pray when she was there with me or in the exam. She said both.
The second event happened today and resulted in exuberant high-fiving and transformed handwriting. I was with my incredibly lovely year eight class. There’s one boy who writes like a spider with a limp, so today I managed to go a little slower and sit with him. As I watched him, I realised that he was holding his pen strangely and turning his hand as he was writing across the page. I showed him an ideal pen-hold after trying out his method myself, which in actual fact gave me cramp! He tried his new method of writing and managed several lines without stopping to complain of pain. He was ridiculously happy about this as he’d started to believe that he just couldn’t write like others.
Now, there’s nothing miraculous about either situation… it was just a matter of living a little slower and taking notice of things that we might often overlook. As many times as I get it right, I could probably multiply those by the times I get it wrong, but I’m trying.
I wonder what low and slow means for you? I think it might mean cleaning the kitchen now, so I might leave the slow part out.
