I was born in May, which might explain my tendency to rush through life. May, at least where I live, is a time of rapid growth and activity in nature, where everything is striving for the sky.
While it’s a hard habit to break, I’m trying to slow down. I have less energy than before, and recent times have highlighted the importance of slowing down. More importantly, I realize that trying to cram too much into a limited time frame makes time feel oppressive. Being overwhelmed makes it difficult to enjoy the present moment fully. Rushing against deadlines doesn’t lead to quality work. I’m far more effective when I slow down.
My inclination to hurry aligns with American culture, which values speed, efficiency, productivity, profit, and achievement. The constant pressure to keep up can make one feel inadequate, even though rushing isn’t beneficial.
Rushing is detrimental to our bodies, relationships, work, and the environment. As Carrie Newcomer, a Quaker singer, said, we’re traveling faster than our souls can go. This raises the question: Can Soul Travel Faster Than Light? The answer is nuanced and depends on how we perceive time and our inner selves.
Nature often exemplifies patience and persistence, especially trees with lifespans spanning centuries. Paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin urged us to “trust in the slow work of God,” using the vastness of geological time to counter our ego-driven desire to outpace our insecurities and achieve our ambitions. The “deep time” perspective offers a marvelous corrective to our frantic pace.
The Dichotomy of Time: Chronos and Kairos
However, embracing time isn’t solely about slowing down. There are times when we need to act decisively. How do we discern when to decelerate and when to accelerate?
Our minds typically operate on chronos time, which measures minutes, hours, and days. However, our soul is connected to a deeper reality. Our soul exists in kairos time – God’s time – which can be meandering or rapidly flowing, depending on the situation.
Our soul might prompt us to propose marriage, welcome children, mend strained relationships, or pursue a new calling, even before we feel fully prepared. Our collective soul recognizes the urgent need to address racial and economic injustices and to care for our ailing planet, whose climate requires immediate attention. Like the disciples rushing to the tomb on Resurrection Sunday, sometimes we must run.
The only way to travel at the speed of soul is to listen intently to its quiet voice. Ironically, this requires stillness. Perhaps it’s divine humor that we must sometimes slow down from our busyness to realize that we mustn’t waste the precious gift of time. This leads us to consider whether the soul travel faster than light through intuition and a deeper connection to the present.
The Urgency of Now
The Gospel of Mark has been called the “Gospel of immediacy,” highlighting the frequent use of the word “immediately” (euthus in Greek). This immediacy underscores the importance of acting decisively when our soul calls us to action. When we are aligned with our purpose, can the soul travel faster than light to impact the world?
Consider the most pressing social or environmental challenge we face. In your moments of reflection, ask for guidance on how you can contribute your time, talents, or resources—now, not later. This sense of urgency, guided by our soul, is crucial.
Ultimately, the question of whether the soul can travel faster than light is less about physics and more about our ability to align with our inner selves, listen to our intuition, and act with purpose and urgency when the moment calls for it.
