Slowing Down

©Bill Petrie

One of my great joys during summer in the Cotswolds is being able to sit on a bench overlooking empty fields. In front of me a maze of brambles, nettles, grasses and cow parsley. Ahead, the rising sun.

As I sit with a soft gaze, time begins to slow.

The sounds birdsong rise and fall against a background of silence.

Gradually, small things catch my eye: the shining outline of a backlit nettle; a tiny snail climbing; a wasp trying to reach water held in a crack; a spider’s web that was not there the day before.

Relaxed and open, I begin to meditate.

I rest my attention on the lower belly.

After a while, awareness expands into the space around me, and a sense of deep peace arises.

Time becomes timeless.

When, eventually, I open my eyes and return to the world, I am rewarded with endless beauty.

I may or may not reach for a camera.

Either way, I come away feeling immensely rich and deeply at peace.