The Immediate Long-Term

I walk the aisles  I walk the trails

grocery store wilderness

Instant coffee Century Redwoods

Instant ramen Million-year loam

Frozen and  Sunlight and

Ready-made packages Water

make sustain

Life  Life

Easier Flow

My cleaning appliances  My notebooks

all have all hold

QUICK settings SLOW ideas

Luring me  Inviting me

Get  Think

Done Improve

Faster Grow

Move on Be present

Next things  Listen

Constant running  Savor

Process Learning

A seven letter word, An opportunity,

Reduced to seven steps Expanded experience

The Net The Network

I pay for and I feed and

I am influenced by I am nourished by

high speed matchmaking… human touch…

rapid communication… purposeful conversation…

hurried parenting… intentional guidance…

cursory skills… deep understanding…

I struggled to write this week. My task was to unpack our cultural push that “faster, more efficient, and easier” somehow has translated into “better, right, and good.” That’s what our kids see and hear, and it’s sending them the message that if it’s hard or takes time, something’s off - either the thing they are trying to do is too hard or not worth it, or worse yet, there’s something wrong with them or their capabilities because it’s causing them to put forth effort.

We do have choices about that, but oftentimes it’s hard to jump off the train and create space to show them how wonderful it is to work hard, move slower, and do purposeful work to grow and develop.

In a weird way, it helped me to put it into a poem -  not because it was faster or easier. The poem seemed to create space for me to fill in the many thoughts it brought up. Hope it does for you too.