We live in an ever-fast paced world. I don’t know about you but I can hardly keep up with my emails, personal and work emails included. And I know it’s really bad when I am not even able to keep up with text messages! How did we get here? What are the repercussions of such a fast passed world that requests and even demands that we respond timely when there is no time? It feels nearly impossible to feel adequate. And how do we aim for something much more worthwhile, something way beyond adequate, something like competent, capable, and fulfilled? How can be our full selves when bogged down this these calls for response?
No one is acknowledging all we do, not even ourselves. Is this because there is always more we can do or because we are lacking the fundamental need to reflect on our actions and being? (Don’t even get me started on how this brings up doing vs. being, another discussion entirely.) Sometimes, I come home and find it hard to even muster up the energy to talk to a friend or take my dog for a walk. And who among us have not sat in a public place and looked around to see everyone on some device, or sitting with a friend who just “needs” to respond to a text immediately rather than be with you to truly reflect on the day. I continue to be in wonder about how we came to feel we have less time when we all have these gadgets that are meant to offer us more time? How can we possible see each other when the world is this way?
I sat in circle with others in the height of this feeling this past week. And in the sharing, it occurs to me that the need is not for more time, but for reflection time. This is an essential part of initiation: Time to reflect. How long can we last sitting alone with ourselves, and even more significant a question, how comfortable can we do this if actually given the opportunity? This is an important practice; to get comfortable with the discomfort this era faces in disconnecting from everything to connect to ourselves more deeply. How often do we intend to create time for ourselves only to be hijacked by a call, a text, an email, a thought of a “must do” task?
Reflection as a practice has left many of us. Without reflect we are just moving forward in our lives, rather than growing more conscious through each movement. Rite of Passage offers this, reflection time, getting real with ourselves, meeting ourselves in the truth of what has occurred, what is current, and what is calling us forward. To step into this world as an initiated person, we must be willing to reflect; reflection can carry us forward to show up, not as merely adequate but as capable, conscious, fully ourselves people.