A person who is looking for something

doesn't travel very fast.

-- E. B. White
 
 

  What do we really want? What are we seeking? Many of us have felt driven and still feel restless or compulsive at times.

We frantically allowed our impulses to self-destructive extremes.

Even those painful actions of our past were motivated, at the bottom line, by a spiritual search.

What did we really seek in the bottle, or in the passionate bed, or in our work?

Slowing down enough every day to let ourselves know what we are looking for gives us a much better chance of finding it. 

Today we can slow down by taking twenty minutes for solitude and quiet, for meditation or prayer. 

We can call a friend simply for a moment of contact.

We might read something to give ourselves some ideas to ponder, or we can listen to music which will transport us to another world.

Perhaps we can simply walk more slowly from our cars or the bus stop to our homes.

Often it is not the events in our lives that bring change but the space between events.

In Micronesian, there's a word, kukaro, which has no

corresponding word in English. When people say they are going to

kukaro, they mean they are going to relax, sit around, hang out.

They are being, not doing.

-- Eli and Beth Halpern

These make the best memories, and times sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows or having a root beer after a family outing seem to bring out the love we share. 

We don't seem to be accomplishing anything at these times.

No chores are getting done around the house, no schoolwork, no repairs, no money-making. 

But these times of peace, relaxation, and a sense of endless time of being, not doing, may be essential to our ability to get other things done later.

Certainly we are most receptive to our feelings, new ideas, and unplanned adventures at these moments.

Maybe we should add kukaro to our vocabulary.