The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda captures the Grace of slowing down in his poem Keeping Quiet . . . Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would not look at his hurt hands. Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victories with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade doing nothing. What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about.
If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead in winter and later proves to be alive. He did to rest awhile . . . But, as David de la Rosa reminds us in his tribute to Christopher, little did we know His leaving was just changing in disguise. Just a weekend trip Home to Mom and Dad, then . . .