Getting a little more perspective

Yesterday I joined a group of business folk on a walk high up the Swansea Valley as it borders the Brecon Beacons.

The sun shone and tempered the icy wind as it cut across the mountain tops and headed for the valleys and the sea.

It was a beautiful day, and the air was invigorating.

However, the contrast was marked.

Here we were in an astonishing landscape formed over millions of years, and even the industrial heritage was centuries old.

And yet the return to the pace and busyness of life was already becoming evident.

It’s been growing since the new year. And while people weren’t overtly wearing the badge of busyness, meaning and value were starting to be extracted from the things they were juggling.

Why do we exchange real meaning for a manufactured one based on how much we can get done in the shortest amount of time?

And shrinking perspectives in the magnificence of landscapes bearing the mark of millennia?

Perhaps it’s time to intentionally reset our clocks and see our contribution to the ongoing creation of the world in long time.

DUST

We are of the dust,
grounded in dark soil
and the quaking of a new world,
sighed into being by a greater wonder.

We are of the dust,
grainy and awkward
and entirely, astonishingly sacred,
sanctified by a love beyond our wildest dreams.

We are of the dust
yet filled with shimmering glory –
intoxicating holiness not just pouring from heaven,
but rising up through our dirt-covered roots.

+ Gideon Heugh, in Devastating Beauty

~

This week

Inviting ourselves takes practice and permission to become, rather than just to arrive.