Have you noticed how people from different cultures have different norms for personal space, rules of conversation, volume of speech etc? I returned from my first visit to Africa last week and was struck by a different cultural speed of movement. At first I wondered if it was because of the heat and humidity but I’ve experienced the same conditions in Asia without the same slowing down impact on speed. Perhaps it’s correlates with a deep cultural outlook – ‘Why rush? What’s the urgency?’
I became conscious of how, by contrast, I instinctively rush around, even when there was no apparent need to do so. I felt challenged. Why am I so driven? What impact does constant high-speed activity have on my health, perspective and relationships? Have I lost sense of pace, harmony, perspective, priority, ability to notice the important things, to live in the eternal Presence? This is the real gift I bring back from Africa – an opportunity to see things in a new light, to approach life afresh, to reconsider God’s perspective and to live anew in that liberating truth.
