Sometimes, even in meditation, I feel I’m in a hurry! I’m glad, of course, that life is so full –  of people, and poetry, and new every morning beauty, and the hundred thousand little things that make up our days and weeks and months and years. Glad that time doesn’t drag. And yet, I need to slow down if I’m to be fully awake, alive and aware. I need to slow down enough to notice.

So I slowed my stride this morning. Awakened by bracing cold morning air, I was enthralled by the unique formation of ice crystals on a field gate. Alive, I marvelled at the wonder of it and tasted a few flakes on my tongue. Aware, and stock still, I saw the woodpecker a fraction of a second before I heard the knocking, loud enough to fill the forest and maintain my slower pace homeward.