Going Slowly

The tap dancer Chuck Green had a saying that went something like this:

“Tap dancing is like telling a story. When I teach I’m not just teaching you the story, I’m teaching you how to tell the story. So I teach you slowly, so you can learn everything you need to be a story teller, too.”

Slowly. The pace that is necessary in order to learn how to become a story teller. We live in a fast world. But the speed at which information can travel belies the pace at which real learning happens.

Yes, there are small quick lessons that we learn every day. However there are deep shifts that are happening over a much larger scale at a much slower pace. These deeper learnings are the ones I love. The fruits show up after many years of seeds being planted and plants being tended to. They take patience to pay attention to, a long view to invest energy in, and trust that at the right time the fruits will actually show.

The first step here is to recognize that the pace is different.