The Lunar New Year holiday is nearly over; the lights and firework smoke of celebration will soon fade, and everyone will return to everyday life.
Festivals year after year,
life day after day,
spring, summer, autumn and winter in turn,
the cycle of birth, ageing, sickness and death —
within all these routines that look alike lie incredible surprises — and one of them is discovering what is real.
Returning to everyday life is living — and it is also a practice.
Humans have a special ability: in things that repeat, we discover again and again what we did not know before. It is the power of observation — life's wisdom at work, a kind of progress, a surprise, the discovery of "so that's how it is", a superpower of sudden clarity.
Repeating festivals,
repeating days,
repeating seasons,
repeating lives —
If we can slow down,
we will find that no moment is really a repeat;
if we can slow down,
we will find that repetition is only what we assume;
if we can slow down,
we will find that we have been living in our imagination all along;
and if
you truly discover all this,
you will see
what is real walking towards you,
you will see
yourself walking towards you.
If
you truly slow down.
breathe slowly
be real slowly
all is well
With gratitude and blessings, the Slow Living Education Society of Taiwan
