Take A Walk: Slow Down and Simplify

The world rushes onward in a tide that sweeps us from one task to the next with scarce a moment to breathe. Yet the soul, like the trees in winter, require stillness and loss to once again blossom again. What is gained in the hurry of the world if we lose the ability to listen—to the wind in the cottonwoods, to the murmur of the river that has carved its patient path through rock and root for centuries?

Take a walk. Explore more. Prioritize more.

We should allow ourselves time to slow down, enjoy even the simplest moments, find magic in even the most tiny of details, like the sun reflecting off ice covered leaves. Linger upon the narrow woodland path and see not just trees, but the trembling of leaves as a hidden bird prepares for flight.

Why should we be so busy and wear it as a badge of honor? Should we not stop to wonder if busyness really is just a form of laziness and a failure to prioritize?

Let the hurried pass by, their breath short, their minds burdened with the weight of things undone. Let them chase time as though it were a prize to be seized, rather than a companion to be embraced. Walk on a trail or path anywhere you can find slowly, contemplatively, or meditatively. As a photographer, I wonder if perhaps the goal is not to create better photos but to create better people. I often feel like the boulder in the river waiting and watching for that well timed photograph while the world, like the water, rushes around me.

The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world. St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere. We are all our lifetime reading the copious sense of this first of forms. One moral we have already deduced, in considering the circular or compensatory character of every human action. Another analogy we shall now trace; that every action admits of being outdone. Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth, that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens. - Emerson

Fine Art metal print by IRON PINE

Spend a few moments contemplating the quote above then read the analysis below.

The image of the circle illustrates the infinite and interconnected nature of existence. Drawing from St. Augustine's description of God as an infinite circle, Emerson emphasizes the boundless and ever-expanding nature of life and knowledge. He highlights the idea that every action has a compensatory aspect and that progress is continuous—each ending is merely the start of something new. Life is an ongoing journey of learning, where deeper truths always emerge beyond what is already known. We can always EXPLOREMORE.