Hello and welcome to 5 Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott,
Out on an absolutely beautiful cold dark night.
I can see the stars above me,
I can't really identify the constellations,
I'm not very good at that,
I'm just looking to see if I can see one that I recognise and yep,
I can see Orion,
I can see Orion's belt,
That's always quite clear to see,
But it's absolutely beautiful,
Quite cold and it's so great because yesterday was wall to wall rain,
It was a foul day and so today,
A clear night,
A bit of coldness in the air,
It feels much more seasonal,
It's really fabulous.
I'm prompted today to reflect on slowing down and I saw a sign in our village,
Someone had put a sign up in the village and the sign was around their home,
They've got children and they've got pets and the village here is quite quiet,
So it's absolutely safe for the children to go out on their bikes and it's really nice,
Sometimes the dogs are sort of lolloping around on the road because they've managed to escape,
But it's really safe so it doesn't matter if you see a stray dog,
You know whose dog it is and you often just walk it back home and this particular notice that's been put up had an image of a child on a bicycle and a little dog and it just says slow down,
Slow down children and animals and it just made me smile because I've been out today meeting a couple of friends and one of these friends is just retired and one of the conversations we had as we were sat around the table,
Me,
My husband and my friend and his wife,
He was talking about this very strange different pace of life he's experiencing and again for him the message is about slowing down and the stage that he's at at the moment is it just feels very new,
Very different,
He's so used to living a life in a very busy environment,
In a big corporation,
He was a leader in this corporation and it's just a very different place to be and it's not bad,
It's just different and he's actually quite enjoying this slower pace and I always feel as I get towards the end of the year it's a time to reflect on my year past and aspirations for the year ahead and one of the things I realize that is so important is slowing down.
Now slowing down doesn't mean that you do less in your life,
It doesn't mean that you have fewer activities and it might mean that,
What I think I mean by slowing down though is this delicious slowing down of my mind and as my mind slows down it feels like I have more space,
More spaciousness in my life and I don't want to lose that,
I really don't,
It's the most precious gift I've given myself is slowing down in my world,
Allowing my mind to slow down and then experiencing what it is to have spaciousness.
You see I've been reminded as I've looked back and I look back on the walk that I undertook,
The pilgrimage walk of 630 miles across England following energy currents,
I was going at a walking pace and what I realized is the walk felt like a meditation.
On many occasions I would get into a rhythm of walking and my body felt like it was slowing down,
My mind was slowing down and I was walking,
I wasn't going fast and it occurred to me as I was walking and it's occurred to me since that we're designed as human beings to walk,
Walking is our natural pace and so today as I reflect back on the sign in the village,
My friend who's retired and also as I reflect back on the walk that I undertook earlier in the year,
The message of slowing down feels really important to appreciate the slowing down I've done this year and also to look ahead and to contemplate slowing down for the future.
I'd love to know your thoughts on slowing down,
What does it mean for you?
