Yesterday we spent the day at a retreat centre in Sussex, getting away from the busyness of life and refocusing on God.
During the day I took a walk out in the countryside, I often pray best when I'm walking along.
As I started out through the gate and down the path I very quickly realised that I had forgotten how to simply walk.
I had begun trudging off as if there was somewhere I needed to be, a walk of urgency and efficiency.
As I realised what I was doing I made the conscious decision to slow down, so slow that it took a while for my mind and body to feel comfortable going at such a slow pace.
But wow, I was reminded that when you slow down in life, your ability to see and to hear is dramatically transformed. I walked slowly, I prayed and I listened and it was a beautiful experience.
I haven't written any sort of poetry in so long, but after that walk I felt compelled to reflect something of it in writing...
here it is...
During the day I took a walk out in the countryside, I often pray best when I'm walking along.
As I started out through the gate and down the path I very quickly realised that I had forgotten how to simply walk.
I had begun trudging off as if there was somewhere I needed to be, a walk of urgency and efficiency.
As I realised what I was doing I made the conscious decision to slow down, so slow that it took a while for my mind and body to feel comfortable going at such a slow pace.
But wow, I was reminded that when you slow down in life, your ability to see and to hear is dramatically transformed. I walked slowly, I prayed and I listened and it was a beautiful experience.
I haven't written any sort of poetry in so long, but after that walk I felt compelled to reflect something of it in writing...
here it is...
The unhurried paths of grace
Today I walk
I walk this path
deliberately agenda-less.
Today I walk this path slowly
with a pace, uncomfortable to my ever whirring mind.
Slow, my racing heart.
My pounding thoughts, cease.
Today I surrender to the walk
on these unhurried paths of grace.
On these paths the destination is the journey,
on these paths you are seen more than you can see.
You are invited into the heart of another.
Here words are unimportant, their meanings lost in deep silence.
No compulsion.
No rush
just the walk.
And You are ever present.
Maybe you whisper
Maybe you don't.
Either way, together we walk
these unhurried paths of grace.
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