“Slow down, you move too fast
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobblestones
Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Ba da-da da-da da-da, feeling groovy”
Paul Simon
It’s not a bible verse but it’s a great idea.
Everyone who knows me knows I walk quite fast. Life is fast paced. There’s a lot to do for others, for work, for the family and for my own life, all the time.
But this weekend Paul Simon’s lyrics became my reality.
I had a treat of a few days staying with a friend down in Cornwall and we went bird watching.
I’ve never done bird watching before - not properly. My friend has the camera with the big lens so she can take the pictures so back home at the end of the day we could verify what birds we saw and look close up.
All I had to do was to slow down.
You can’t bird watch if you rush by. You can only spot the birds by stopping, and watching, and listening.
Which branch is moving?
What direction is that birdsong coming from?
What colour was the breast or beak?
And when you slow down and watch and listen you enter a new bird world.
The hovering Kestrel overhead. The Skylark hidden in the grass. The swooping Swallows catching flies. The red-beaked Chough digging for grubs. The Cirl Bunting elusively singing in the bushes and the Dipper effortlessly jumping in and out of the river’s edge.
And as we walked slowly, chatting, sitting on benches and standing still; we looked, we spotted, we listened and something changed.
My mind slowed down, my soul stilled and I remembered that creation is extraordinary, majestic, ordered, beautiful, always learning and too often it’s the human beings just getting in the way.
And I was humbled.
Today, I’m back on the commute and working in the office but not wanting to let go of the ability to slow down (author Paul Simon) and walk humbly with our God (author Micah)
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:9
And I’m hoping to keep practicing my new found learning, listening to and looking out for my wonderful new found feathered friends.
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