26 Nov Whispering

‘I also work for the fire department,’ he says, ‘which can be tricky with these narrow streets. When you have tourists who park such a big bus on the side of the road.’ He looks up as if he sees the image in his memory. ‘Lightning once struck the mill. The guy who was driving the car tore through the streets right past such a big camper. I heard a crack. When we arrived, the steps on the side of the car had disappeared.’ With a familiar gesture, he unties the boat and pulls it a little closer. ‘Get in,’ he says, ‘don’t you want a life jacket for that little one?’

On the water
That little one is my grandson. Under his blond crest, he looks inquisitively at what awaits him now. The boat makes a big swing when his mother gets on it and also with the next passengers. He likes that. Patiently, he lets himself be put on the orange life jacket. It has a whistle. He tries that out right away. Here we go. The whisper boat has two positions, 1 and 2. That is clear. A wide boat approaches in the narrow ditch in front of us. I think of the fire brigade and the steps and put the boat in position 1. That is the super-snail’s pace. Behind the oncoming boat, a second and a third boat arrive. I look at the full boats and at the same time at our young passenger. He quietly takes everything in. ‘On the water’ just bobs into his world of experience.

Position 1
And then happens what we have experienced many times before: this slow whisper boat also slows us down. There is peace and space. Swallows make a dive towards our boat, ducks swim along the quay, a heron spreads its wide wings and sails over the land.
Time also seems to have position 1.

The orange life jacket with the crest above it detaches itself from its mother and starts exploring the boat. He expertly climbs over the benches to the back, to his father at the helm and then back again. While climbing, he stands proudly balanced on the bench as if to say: there you go, I did it again.

The fireman has a broad smile when he sees us coming back. ‘Just put it along the jetty’. His son takes the orange vest. The open-hearted man talks to us at full volume as if we were family. When I want to greet him at the end, I see him on the water again to moor our boat properly.

A whisper boat is about the slowest means of transport you can think of. Even walking is faster. But the nice thing is that our system, now that it is faced with the fact that the journey is going at this pace, adapts. From this peace, the environment comes to life.

Peace as a starting point
The method that I have developed to deal with time well and that I have called Time Surfing, does not put effectiveness first, but peace. It gives seven instructions for this. That seems to grate in the ever-faster world.
Any other method of managing your time is about being sharper, better and more.
But the remarkable thing is that rest yields much more: everything goes better from rest. Not only is it much more pleasant and you feel better about yourself, not only do you stay healthier and get more satisfaction from what you do, not only are you more open and therefore more creative but also … you are more productive! Although it is not on the banner, it is thrown into your lap as a gift.

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch