Instant.

Our lives are compounded in direction, movement, potential, trajectories and expanse. We forget to pause, to slow time and rest our raging ambitions and thought patterns. We become conflated in desire, in regret and fear letting life slip through our fingers.

Our bodies, like engines, burn the midnight oil and we come to expect so much - often without a realistic or grounded perception. The best and richest things in life take time.

Yet, we have come to anticipate instant partnerships, friendships, family, work, homes, romance, fitness and health. The cult of the American dream, of cinema, of celebrity and 'the pursuit' of happiness , are perhaps factors in our cravings, our yearnings and our candied appetite for instant results. In truth, these all take time and take conscious, applied effort. All things worthwhile need feeding, watering, loving and actively returning to. They require constant dialogue - a give and a take.

We imagine that things will transform immediately simply because we want it enough or simply believe we deserve it. We imagine that our worries and fears can be removed in a day - can be fixed or solved in a moment.

Whilst that is entirely possible and can happen - life is full of ups and downs, its bitterness and sweetness, its joys and its pains. There is no instant panacea for this condition of everlasting movement, everlasting evolution and change that we find ourselves in. We cannot contain or limit life and certainly not instantly.

It is true that at times, life can change just like that. Our outcomes, our paths, slide and sail towards another port, and each time we grow in fascination - become bolder, braver and wiser. We get comfortable with risk, with intuition, with action and with choice. We learn to trust, we learn to share trust, we learn to lose and re-find trust.

Hope swims along our worried minds, our stubborn souls , our ancient flight lines - of movement, migrancy and transience. We accept the ephemeral. We accept we could be wrong and that perhaps there is another way, another lens, another place to land and look out from.

Life takes time. It takes discipline and faith. It takes action and active, constant relationship with others. Without relating, we shrink ourselves, we preserve and limit our capacity, and we exist in an echo chamber.

Nothing worth having can be found without investing time and concentrated effort. Love invites a prolonged equilibrium, of nurturing our eco-systems, taking care of our biospheres, and being patient with the process.

The things we want the most - partnership, freedom, friendship, family, adventure, pleasure - come from nourishing and actively participating in the lives of our lovers, friends, family and community over time. We have come to expect so much from giving so little. To place our trust in apps, in search engines and tracking devices - when these are designed as tools, as maps and aids towards our ends.

We need to give each other time, give our expectations time and learn not to invite instant results, instant decisions and instant outcomes. We are overproducing, overworking and overdoing what is natural and sustainable.

Anything worth having has a permanence, a roundness, a sense of durability. A sturdy but beautiful pair of shoes - that will last and endure. If you take care of them over time - they will take care of you.

So be patient, expect less and invest in daily actions, active connection with that and those that matter - and create a life you love over time, not within seconds.

There is an innate impermanence, passivity and imbalanced quality in anything that feels urgent, rushed or pressed...

...So stand back. Take a pause. Remove the hysteria, the emergency, find safety in yourself and let things grow over time.