Picking up the Pace

Tomorrow marks "opening day" for many churches, the day when they switch from a more relaxed summer schedule to the fall pace. According to the local paper, many churches call this "Rally Sunday", or "Kickoff Sunday", or "Homecoming Sunday" or some name apparently drawn from the world of football. The term used at Unity is "Service of Reunion", which at least sounds appropriately religious.
Tomorrow, we go from one service to three, our Wellspring Wednesday evening service and programming starts this week, and Religious Education starts next Sunday. I'm already feeling the heightened energy that this pace brings. I've been to several Pledge Team meetings this week as they prepare for the launch of the stewardship program in a few days. It is easy to get drawn into such a frenetic pace, with so much going on, to begin to do everything in a hurry, to try to be all things to all people.
The name of this blog is Slowing Down, which is my reminder to myself that there is a better way than frenzy. Slowing Down is one of the points of the Eight Point Program, which is the foundation of my daily spiritual practice.
For me, slowing down is being mindful of the tasks I choose to take on. I try to avoid overloading myself with commitments and activities that I cannot complete, so that I can do what is most useful to those around me and to myself. I try to pace myself, so that I don't find myself doing unneeded rework. I also try to keep my perfectionist tendencies from causing me to waste time with unnecessary thoroughness. This is very hard for me at times.
A friend says he "slows down in order to go fast." If going fast means attending to what is truly important, and letting go of the rest, I am striving for that kind of speed.