Talking & Walking

Walking & Talking

And most of all sharing silence in nature.

The sociologist Pierre Bourdieu maintained that our social condition becomes inscribed in our bodies. The italics come from Kagge’s Walking. Another way of saying the same thing as both of them in modern parlance and a form of challenge is:

You talk the talk but do you walk the walk? In other words, actions speak louder than words. Are we willing to stand out from the crowd or take a stand for what we believe in, for what we value in life?

As a child I could slow my heart down to a few beats

I could listen and feel it

I didn’t count how many per minute

I didn’t count the numerous ploughs in the sky

But there were many and not just one

Universe

Is that all gone?

With my imagination

There is no complication

As life speeds up

My time slows down

Tears about to form

Once again remembering

My innocence

Years not knowing

what life was

Just experiencing

Living through me

Nowadays, whenever life feels like it’s moving too quickly, or should I say my life, I pause and do and say nothing or at least try to and make no decision or take no decisive action. I watch opportunities pass me by, and wonder is it because I think too much or question why I feel I have to rush. Is this fear of missing out, or fear of being included and given the opportunity to make the kind of decisions that would influence the lives of others paralyses me into pausing? Or is the freeze rather than flight, fight or fawn response when something seems threatening to my non-committal decision?

It feels at times that the body and brain are out of sync and what I’m doing by not rushing in or giving in to the impulse of habitual reaction is part of the journey I’m on: slowing down and listening to my heart and seeing the ploughs in the stars again.