In the last article, the Practices of Joy I mentioned:
2. The Practice of Slowness
Move more slowly than the world expects.
When you walk, let your steps match your breath. When you eat, taste deliberately. When you listen, let silence follow speech. Slowness is not inefficiency - it is intimacy with reality. Joy hides in the spaces haste skips over.
I want to say a little more about that.
When I was studying Japanese martial arts some years ago, one thing my sensei said that I am reminded of was that, in practice, the thing you are going for is not speed or strength but timing. It is to be in the right place at the right moment with the right technique and the right attention. It is to be precise to what the moment calls for. This, in its mastered form, is completely intuitive and without thought. Thought is too slow.
The slowness mentioned above is the right beginning stance because we all try to move too fast and are like a skipping stone across the surface of the water. In this case, speed is required so that the stone does not immediately sink.
But if we become light enough, more like a cork, then we can move slowly and yet float. The cork is buoyant. Joy is buoyant. A buoyant object can be pushed underwater, but it immediately pops back to the surface. Similarly, a joyful, buoyant person has the emotional resilience to bounce back quickly from setbacks or bad days.
So this is something to contemplate and contemplation requires slowness of thought and sustained attention. So along with slowing down, also consider timing and buoyancy.
Here is a related post from last year that was the inspiration for this set of essays on joy:
All is Profoundly Well Beyond Measure
While writing and researching, I came across a well-known statement by Julian of Norwich (c. 1343 – after 1416), an English anchoress, mystic, and writer best known for her book Revelations of Divine Love. She lived during a time of plague, famine, and social upheaval, yet her writings express one of the most hopeful and inclusive visions of Christian spirituality in the Middle Ages.
Throughout my adult life, I have often lived believing in the cliche' "Timing is Everything". Some times it was an excuse for my procrastination but during and looking back....the Timing of many things in my life worked out for the best whether or not I was conscious of it. And in the studio I am especially aware of this Timing thing. Whether it's working on a piece at the moment and purposefully not rushing what I'm doing (which goes against my natural impatience) or merely not working in the studio for days on end as I prepare or psych myself up for doing what needs to be done on a current piece.