The tortoise and the hare, one of Aesop’s Fables, is an account of a race between unequal partners and has many interpretations
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In the fable the speedy hare leaves the tortoise behind, as one would expect, but then being tired of not feeling challenged enough by his competitor and being confident that he is going to win, the hare takes a nap midway the race. It’s then that the steadiness of the hare’s speed brings him to the end first and therefore makes him the winner of the race.
The fable is about whatever each one of us sees in it that transforms him:
foolish over confidence, zeal and perseverance, haste and speed, time and leisure, abilities that bloom with work and self obedience.....
Whatever is your choice of interpretation keep it and apply it to your life.
Today I thought of how stupid it is to compare ourselves to others and try to challenge them to a race. We do that all the time and we end up ridiculing ourselves and the others. As I was reading the fable again I thought about time and speed.
I have been educated to feel time according to a watch. By the time I am 20 I will have finished school, by the age of 30 I will have settled down, and when I am 50 I will be enjoying the seeds of my efforts.
But time has failed me more than any other thing in life. Because at this age after having finished with my first circle of life I feel reborn and have the same issues with my children: I am starting a new job, and a new relationship.
Time is illusory and can become a mental disease if it exists outside of you. We try to get somewhere and we forget about the present moment , which is what we only have. An obsession with the future and winning the race of life makes us forget the freshness of the present moment.
We all have an inner clock that measures our shift in consciousness and that is our own time.
Of course time exists in the outside world but when you find your own rhythm, your own pace to do things you create eternity and time will no longer bind you.
One should be helped and should be taught to align to their own natural rhythm.
I used to tell my boys and my daughter not to let anyone rush them into doing things. We are all bloomers but we have our own clock. We must wait for our own time to grow, to bloom. I was a late bloomer. Late bloomers are those whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. They develop slower than others in the group either physically, intellectually or socially. It’s ok. The world is full of different shapes and forms. We are not identical thank God but someone should be there to remind us that each one of us has ones’ own way of doing things. At school, especially during adolescence, there are huge differences in development. Some are still children, others are sexually mature but not fully grown, others are adults. All put together in the same class, comparing themselves and racing as tortoises after hares only to find out later in life that hares went to sleep and got off track while others broke through later and left others behind.
Learn to use time in your life.
Use clock time to fulfill your daily aspects of life but expand time by living always in the present moment. Focus your attention on Now . Set your goals and make the first step towards them. Each step will bring the next one and then you will not need to focus on the goal anymore. It will unfold, it will open up as you work towards it. Honor the step and forget about the future. If not, you might get obsessed about making it in life, succeeding and trying to find ways of attaining to it. So you miss the beauty of yourself and the miracle of life. You only have yourself. So stop finding ways to finish the race, see it as an adventure, stay focused on the present moment which is the only time you have and let yourself unfold and wait for your time. Someone might be faster at the starting point but you might end happier and more fulfilled if you wait for your time. No one is always ahead or behind. We have our own pace and the secret is to follow our own rhythm. Then we can hear our inner voice and find the courage in our hearts to go on. To do the things we want and enjoy them. To be courageous and perform because it’s our calling , not somebody elses’ who just challenged us. We challenged ourselves and there lies the key of happiness. Otherwise we stumble and fall continuously because we wear heels like our mum which are not ours, they do not fit, they are too high for us since we are not yet able to walk...
This fable could be about the stupidity of the race and the refusal to proceed any longer...We will all arrive at the end. We will all end the race. We will all go together to the end. Each one of us on its own pace and when our time comes. So do not rush. Because a hare can not be a tortoise and a tortoise can not run as quickly as a hare.
But be ware! One day the tortoise breaks through and its accomplishments are as huge as its patience and perseverance.
But above all they are as huge as their wisdom to wait for their own clock, their own pace.
