A Different Way to Do Busy

Today’s blog entry comes from my friend Jill Sockman, owner of Blue Lotus Yoga Studio in Raleigh, NC. I can’t think of a more perfect way to integrate the reality of being busy with the importance of slowing down.

From Jill ….

I’m a bit of a word geek. I love new words, quotes, foreign languages, you name it, I love it all. So I’m always excited to be introduced to a phrase I’ve never heard before. Festina Lente.

This little phrase showed up at the end of an e-mail message from a friend, who is a fellow logophile. Not to be in the dark for a moment, I immediately consulted our ever-present guide Google-ji to find the definition of this little Latin gem:

Make haste slowly. Yes, that’s right. Make Haste Slowly.

How much do I love this little phrase? Let me count the ways. First, it’s got the lovable charm of an oxymoron: hurry up and slow down, already, you might say. And as someone who is regularly in a hurry for absolutely no reason, it’s sound advice.

It is relevant to note that we’re not saying lente lente (though also good advice) and so Festina Lente carries the suggestion that even those things of an urgent nature be seen through with patience and care. This brings to mind my grandfather and his “if you’re going to do something at all, you may as well do it your best” ways. There’s the faint aroma of diligence and patience hidden in the phrase.

But my favorite slice-let of Festina Lente showed up in Wikipedia, “Work is best done in a state of flow in which one is fully engaged by the task and there is no sense of time passing.” Ahhhhh…The Zone. In the moment. The eternal now. The timeless space in which we are at one with the task at hand, moving with Grace. The goal of our practice is this savoring, fully present place where we are so completely right here that we miss nothing. Yes, please.

As you move through your December, and its parties, travels, shopping trips, visits, hurries and stresses, Festina Lente, friends. Festina Lente.