‘Festina Lente’ or Make Haste Slowly (Fabians)

‘Slow down or nothing worthwhile will ever catch up with you’ (Roger Von Oech)

A great book on this - what he calls ‘the slow way of knowing’ is by Guy Claxton called ‘Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind’.

He says: ‘We meet with cleverness, focus and deliberation those challenges that can only be properly handled with patience, intuition and relaxation’

I use the analogy of the Dimmer Switch in my books. The light isn’t quite out - it never is - but is dimmed. You’re resting while your brain is subtly working and coming up with some great stuff. But you have to allow it time to do so. It really is about very ’soft’ rather than ‘hard’ thinking. Although you cannot idle your way to insight either.

On another matter I saw a great piece by American ‘Humaerobicist’ CW Metcalf the other day. He was in the burns unit of a children’s hospital. He came up to an eight year old who had been set alight at home by his alcoholic father - his face had to be reconstructed, plastic surgery etc. CWM approached the child to talk. He said ‘You’ll have to forgive me, I have never spoken to a burns victim before’ The child quick as a flash shot back with pride ‘Victims are dead people. I am a burns survivor’. What a great attitude!