31 in 31 #25 Moving at the speed of kindness

31 in 31 #25 Moving at the speed of kindness

Food is a big deal to my wife and I. We love to shop for food, cook and eat. For the past many years, we cook together on the weekend and make enough delicious and nutritious food for the week. The preparation is relaxed and creative and we make wonderful meals of all sorts. We go to a nice supermarket near us as part of the adventure and are experts in efficiency knowing where everything is located. Almost every time we go I become very quiet internally as we navigate the aisles moving quietly and attentively with the other shoppers and their carts. I love the experience. Today as I was shopping the phrase “moving with the speed of kindness” came into my mind. I had my own intentions to buy bananas and yogurt and other things and so it was with every other person in the market. I noticed that part of the joy of the shopping experience for me is taking into account all the other people who are moving through their intentions. Some are tense, some relaxed, some speaking on the phone, some with children and so on. “The speed of kindness” is a way of being congruent and adaptive to everything going on and also not losing the thread of my own intentions (say, the bananas and are they too ripe). This phrase, this notion completely generalizes to everything and everywhere. How attentive and adaptive can I be to what’s going on around me? Can I be so blended that there is a hardly a separation between myself and others – or in massage, between my fingers and the dog’s breathing. What a beautiful mediations to carry through life.