Doing Without Urgency

   It's difficult to do anything these days without feeling the pull of urgency-- a deadline coming up, social expectations, and the rising feeling that everything can be 'measured' and evaluated by a single yardstick. I have found that what it amounts to is a kind of frantic doing; doing as much as possible without even feeling grounded in the moment. As I am writing this passage, I am thinking about a teacher I know who hardly ever seems to be in a frantic state of doing or urgency, yet manages to say and do things most appropriate to that given moment. It's not that there is one single overriding answer to the moment, but it, rather, is that one's presence conveys a confidence in that moment which pervades everywhere and everything. One says what needs to be said precisely because one embodies the calm and cool sense of 'it is enough', or rather "I am enough". And this can fill a whole room with a sense of peace and acceptance.
   As I am writing this passage, I am slowed down--partly because I am tired from the week's racing activities, but also I am reflecting that often times, the most powerful things are not the products of a frantic rushing to accumulate knowledge and experiences. That power comes from the ability to be at home in this present state of doing or non-doing. It's not so much what one does as it is that grounded and full sense from which actions arise: everything else is just the physical/emotional vocabulary we use to express that sense of moment to moment presence. With this presence, there is no need to rush ahead, and nor is there any need to fall behind either. The pace that feels most appropriate is the one we can use to allow us to be present. With that presence, everything is meaningful in its own terms and I don't need to complete a cycle of activities for this to happen.