ISSUE No. 63 | NOVEMBER 2025
WELCOME
If you’re new to CULTIVARE we welcome you! CULTIVARE is a monthly field guide for life and faith, brought to you by TEND. Each month we explore a specific “field” – a topic or theme through which we seek to cultivate contemplation, engagement, and deeper understanding. Our guiding questions are:
What are you cultivating in your life?
What fruit do you want your life to bear?
Each issue of CULTIVARE is structured into three parts:
Cultivate: Examines a specific “Field” or facet of life and offers questions to unearth and challenge our held perspective; along with concise kernels of truth which we call “Seeds.”
Irrigate: Explores the ways we nurture our understanding, which varies from individual to individual. We offer six means of irrigation: Art, Poetry, Profile, Film, Essay, and Books.
Germinate: Encourages practical ways to engage in becoming more fruitful and free in our lives.
Our name, CULTIVARE, in Spanish means “I will cultivate.” We hope each issue of our field guide will encourage you to do just that – cultivate new thoughts, actions, faith, hope, and fruitful living. We invite you to dig in and DIG DEEP!
FIELD
For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field.
(I Corinthians 3:9)
Our theme this month is PACE. What do you think of when you think of pace? Do you think of speed? Cadence? Rhythm? Endurance? Sustainability? All are meaningful and helpful synonyms. All invite us to consider how we are moving through time and space, and whether our manner of living feels healthy and purposeful and promising.
When I think of pace, I recall The Tortoise and the Hare, that cautionary tale reminding us that slow and steady wins the race but that living at a frenetic pace can leave us lost and bewildered. In our culture that seems to prize busyness and hustle, it’s easy to believe that faster is always better. But from my observation, living at a frantic pace often leaves us drained and disconnected. When we slow down, we create space to reflect, listen, and notice what goes on below the surface, to peer into the deep of our lives and souls. A healthy pace is about living with attentiveness and intention.
There are also moments when God nudges us to move—when staying still leads to stagnation. At times, we may be called to “pick up the pace,” not out of panic or pressure, but because growth requires action. Like Moses leading the Israelites through the desert, movement is part of our faith journey; it’s an invitation to trust and step forward, even when the destination isn’t clear.
In this issue we profile author Kathleen Norris who invites us to embrace a sustainable and grace-filled pace in order to reclaim the sacredness of time. We feature an essay by Katelyn Dixon entitled Living at the Speed of Jesus. And we spotlight the film Without Limits which tells the true story of Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine.
Finding a healthy pace means learning to recognize when to pause and when to go. It’s about balance—walking with both patience and purpose. Whether we’re slowing down to breathe or moving forward with deliberate speed, the goal is the same: to live fully, freely, faithfully, and in rhythm with the life God is unfolding within us. At what pace are you living? (DG)
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Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25 NIV)
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1 NIV)
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31 NIV)
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11 NIV)
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SEEDS
A handful of quotes to contemplate and cultivate into your life
We have been moving along at such a fast pace that we no longer know what we are doing. Now we have to wait until our soul catches up with us. (Paulo Coelho)
To walk with Jesus is to walk with a slow, unhurried pace. Hurry is the death of prayer and only impedes and spoils our work. It never advances it.
(Walter Adams, the spiritual director to C. S. Lewis)
This is very important -- to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you're gonna lose everything...just to do nothing at all, very, very important. And how many people do this in modern society? Very few. That's why they're all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful. (Charles Bukowski)
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
God’s love has an infinite length and breadth, and a depth and a height, in which time itself is gathered. God’s pace is slow because God is eternal. (Søren Kierkegaard)
We’re a species that rushes through everything, then complains that time flies.
(Steve Maraboli)
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. It is not important that he should mature as soon as an apple-tree or an oak. Shall he turn his spring into summer? (Henry David Thoreau)
A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, “Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep. (Leo Tolstoy)
It is only when we slow down our lives that we can catch up to God. (N.T. Wright)
ART
Artist of the Month
David Nash
By Olivia Mather
When English sculptor David Nash planted 22 ash trees in a circle, he believed that they would outlive him. He conceived of this natural sculpture, named Ash Dome, as a type of land art. Land art is when artists use natural materials like wood or stone to create works that integrate into the natural environment. This kind of work opens itself to the volatility of nature. Decay and change are inevitable; their rate is unpredictable. The pace at which the natural landscape envelops, incorporates, or decomposes the artwork cannot be planned. One of Nash‘s well-known works, Wooden Boulder (1978-) is a large boulder sculpted out of wood that he left outside to travel whichever way the elements pushed it. At times the boulder moved quickly, rolling downhill or swept by river tides. At other times, it became stuck among rocks. After 35 years of documented journey, it has been lost, possibly swept out to sea.
Nash’s Ash Dome, like Wooden Boulder, must submit to the pace of nature. The beauty of Ash Dome lies in a balance between planning and letting go, a balance of timing that the artist cannot control. Nash planted the ring of trees at a secret location in Wales (visitors are escorted through a roundabout path). Photographs allow the rest of us to experience the downshifting of time that Ash Dome represents. When gazing at it, we can see beauty in its maturity, knowing that its realization took decades. While other types of art unveil beauty the moment the artist finishes, this work becomes itself at a slower pace. It required an artist with foresight, with the long view, with patience, and with unhurried work. When Nash began the work, he knew that its development would move along at a steady, but slow rate. What he did not know then was that Ash Dome’s arc of development would fast-forward in pace to end its lifespan much sooner than he thought. The ash trees used in Ash Dome have been infected with a fungus fatal to ash trees.
POETRY
For One Who is Exhausted, a Blessing
By John O’Donohue
When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.
The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.
Weariness invades your spirit.
Gravity begins falling inside you,
Dragging down every bone.
The tide you never valued has gone out.
And you are marooned on unsure ground.
Something within you has closed down;
And you cannot push yourself back to life.
You have been forced to enter empty time.
The desire that drove you has relinquished.
There is nothing else to do now but rest
And patiently learn to receive the self
You have forsaken in the race of days.
At first your thinking will darken
And sadness take over like listless weather.
The flow of unwept tears will frighten you.
You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.
PROFILE
Kathleen Norris
and the Spiritual Practice of Pace
By Greg Ehlert
Kathleen Norris, the acclaimed poet, essayist, and Christian thinker, has long invited readers to slow down—to inhabit the world and the Word with attention. Her writing, especially in The Cloister Walk and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, explores the intersection of ordinary life and contemplative faith. Through her distinctive voice—rooted in the rhythms of poetry and monastic liturgy—Norris reminds us that the pace at which we live profoundly shapes the texture of our spiritual lives.
After years in the fast-moving literary world of New York, Norris returned to her grandparents’ home on the Great Plains. There, amid the seeming emptiness of rural Dakota, she discovered an unexpected abundance. The slowness of the prairie—the long horizons, the quiet repetition of seasons—became for her both a discipline and a revelation. In a culture that prizes speed, production, and constant motion, Norris learned to see holiness in what endures: the daily prayers of Benedictine monks, the faithful tending of community life, the “slow work of God” unfolding through time.
Norris’s reflections on monastic life particularly illuminate the spiritual value of pace. In The Cloister Walk, she describes the daily rhythm of the Liturgy of the Hours as a “sacred interruption,” a call to stop whatever one is doing and return to prayer. These pauses, she writes, do not fragment life—they gather it. They create a heartbeat of worship that reorders human activity around divine time rather than personal ambition. To live at this pace requires humility: the willingness to be shaped by something slower, deeper, and truer than one’s own momentum.
Her insight resonates with the experience of many modern believers who find themselves spiritually exhausted by the demands of contemporary life. Norris does not prescribe withdrawal or ascetic escape; instead, she suggests a deliberate recalibration. Slowing down is not an act of laziness but of faith—it is a recognition that grace cannot be rushed. In attending to household chores, community rituals, or the quiet labor of writing, Norris practices what she calls “the holiness of the ordinary.” Each small act, done with patience, becomes a form of prayer.
This theology of pace challenges our culture’s addiction to hurry. For Norris, the frenetic pursuit of success isolates us from others and from God, while attentiveness reweaves the fabric of relationship. When we move slowly enough to notice the presence of God in the mundane, time itself becomes sacramental. She writes that “monastic time is expansive—it does not pass so much as deepen.” That deepening invites transformation: not through striving, but through staying.
In the end, Kathleen Norris offers not merely reflection but invitation. To embrace a sustainable, grace-filled pace is to reclaim the sacredness of time. Whether on the prairie or in the city, whether through prayer or work, we are called to inhabit our moments fully—trusting that God meets us not at the finish line, but in the slow unfolding of each faithful day.
This is another day, O Lord...
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.
And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.
(Kathleen Norris)
FILM
Each month we recommend films focused on our theme
Feature Film
Without Limits
(1998)
Steve Prefontaine was a champion's champion, holder of every American distance running from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. Fans elevated him to rock star status. Athletes were inspired by him. “Pre” didn't run races. He attacked them. Off the track, officials mired in outdated politics got the point that activist Pre was taking the sport into a new era. The short life and fast times of the fiery Oregon distance runner form a movie that “belongs in the company of Jim Thorpe - All American and Chariots of Fire” (Jack Mathews, Newsday). Billy Crudup, uncannily resembling the real-life Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland, as coach and mentor Bill Bowerman, give strong portrayals of lives aflame with conviction but living with the question of healthy pacing. The film is infused with track-savvy authenticity by director Robert Towne and his co-writer Kevin Moore (Prefontaine's friend and a former world-class runner). Available on various streaming services. Watch the trailer here:
Documentary Film
Godspeed:
The Pace of Being Known
(36 minutes)
Follow the moving story of an American pastor whose desire to change the world grinds to a halt in a Scottish parish. Join Eugene Peterson, N. T. Wright, and Granny Wallace on a pilgrimage to being known in your own backyard. Learn to live at Godspeed. Watch the entire film, learn of its making, and engage with resources at www.livegodspeed.org.
Short Film
Pace
(2 minutes)
Life moves fast. Too fast. And as creators, we often fall into the trap of comparison, burnout, and chasing someone else’s timeline. Pace is the first short film—written, shot, and edited by Nate Brown—that tells the story of slowing down, listening to your inner voice, and running your own race in life. Watch the film here:
Ted Talk
Run For Your Life, At a Comfortable Pace and Not Too Far
Dr. James O’Keefe Jr.
(18 minutes)
Dr. James O'Keefe Jr. is the Director of Preventative Cardiology Fellowship Program and the Director of Preventative Cardiology at Cardiovascular Consultants at the Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, a large cardiology practice in Kansas City. In this Ted Talk O’Keefe discusses insights gained from the world of cardiology on longevity that go counter to traditional views of running. He states: The fitness patterns for conferring longevity and robust lifelong cardiovascular health are distinctly different from the patterns that develop peak performance and marathon/superhuman endurance. Extreme endurance training and racing can take a toll on your long-term cardiovascular health. For the daily workout, it may be best to have more fun, endure less suffering, in order to attain ideal heart health. He encourages us to run at a wise and comfortable pace.
ESSAY
Living at the Speed of Jesus
By Katelyn J. Dixon
In this article from Renovare, author Katelyn J. Dixon shares of her experience waiting for the unfolding of God’s plans for her life and of the biblical and theological lessons learned amidst the waiting. Slowing down forced her to understand what it means to live at the speed of Jesus. Two of her helpful observations include:
Jesus only moved and acted at the intentional pace of the Spirit and the pleasure of the Father — which is to say, Jesus moved at the speed of Triune relationship.
In order to learn to walk with Jesus, we first have to un-learn the frantic pace we’ve embraced as a Western society.
We encourage our readers to read the entire article in order to un-learn certain habits and then learn what is required to live at the speed of Triune relationship. Read the entire article here:
View Now
BOOKS
Each month we recommend a book (or two) focused on our theme
NON-FICTION
This month we offer two thought provoking non-fiction books on Pace:
one theological and one practical
Three Mile an Hour God
by Kosuke Koyama
In his book, the Three Mile an Hour God, Japanese Theologian Kosuke Koyama introduces the theology of speed. Human beings walk at a pace of three miles per hour. Jesus, who was fully man and fully human, loved people at the pace of three miles per hour. As Koyama explains: “Love has a speed. It’s a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, at three miles per hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore the speed the love of God walks.” Originally published in 1979, the new 2021 edition features a forward by theologian John Swinton.
Sacred Pace
by Terry Looper
At just thirty-six years old, Terry Looper was a successful Christian businessman who thought he had it all—until managing all he had led to a devastating burnout. Wealthy beyond his wildest dreams but miserable beyond belief, Terry experienced a radical transformation when he discovered how to align himself with God’s will in the years following his crash and burn.
Sacred Pace is a four-step process that helps Christians in all walks of life learn how to
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slow down their decision-making under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
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sift through their surface desires and sinful patterns in order to receive clear, peace-filled answers from the Lord,
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gain the confident assurance that God’s answers are His way of fulfilling the true desires he has placed in their hearts, and
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grow closer to the One who loves them most and knows them best.
Sacred Pace is not another example of name-it-and-claim-it materialism in disguise. Instead, it walks Christians through the sometimes-painful process of “dying to self” in their decisions, both big and small, so that they desire God’s will more than their own.
CHILDRENS
Hurry Up!
A Book About Slowing Down
By Kate Dopirak
A busy boy and his dog learn to slow down and enjoy life together in this lyrical, rhyming picture book perfect for hurried families everywhere.
For one busy boy, life is all hurry up, hurry down, hurry round and round and round! That is until he takes a big breath...and a big break...and slows down to see all the wonderful things in the world around him.
From celebrated picture book author Kate Dopirak and illustrator Christopher Silas Neal, this playful yet powerful picture book reminds us to be present, to be mindful, and to appreciate each moment.
DIG DEEPER
Practical suggestions to help you go deeper into our theme
1. QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
Devote some time and thought to these reflective questions on our theme:
a. Is my current pace of life sustainable for my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health?
b. Am I choosing this pace, or is it being directed by external expectations or society’s "busy culture?"
c. What current habits are contributing to an unhealthy pace that I might want to change or let go of?
d. What parts of my life are being neglected because of the speed at which I'm living (e.g., relationships, hobbies, rest, personal growth)?
e. How does an unhealthy pace affect my ability to be present and find joy in small moments?
f. Are there any areas in my life where I am stuck and need to increase my movement toward change?
g. What would it look like to find a different, more personal pace that feels like "my own?”
h. What fears or self-limiting beliefs is God inviting me to let go of in order to move at a healthier pace of life?
2. THE RUNNING GROUND by Nicholas Thompson
In his new book, The Running Ground, Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson shares about surviving cancer, understanding his father, and achieving a personal best marathon time of 2:29 at age 44. Watch this 11-minute interview of Thompson with the hosts of CBS Mornings.
3. SLOW IT DOWN, SPEED IT UP – WHAT IS THE PACE?
In this article from the Christian Life Institute, authors Katherine and David Pang offer Biblical and psychological insight into the question of pace. Is God calling us to slow things down or is he calling us to speed things up? They encourage us to consider our own questions about pace.
4. ONE MINUTE FLY
The shortness and the never-ending search for the meaning of life are the basic themes in this humorous 4-minute award-winning animated short film. It’s about the life of an adorable quirky fly that has a very limited lifespan - one minute - in which it tries to achieve everything that makes a life worth living.
5. PRAYER FOR THE RIGHT PACE
May this 5-minute video prayer written and read by Ashley Moore for iBelieve be encouraging to you as you seek to live at a healthy and God honoring pace.
ROOTED
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8 NIV)
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FIELD NOTES
Images used in order of appearance:
1. FIELD: Olivia Mather, photo of sheet music from The Impossible Dream composed by Mitch Leigh, 2025.
2. SEEDS: Photo from “Baby Sea turtles interrupt fireworks show” (2019) KOCO Oklahoma City https://www.koco.com/article/baby-sea-turtles-interrupt-firework-show/28305621
3. ART: First Image: Rob Fraser, David Nash at Ash Dome. From Javier Pes,“What’s a Land Artist to Do When His Living Sculpture Starts Dying? David Nash Comes to Terms With the End of ‘Ash Dome’” (June 21, 2018) https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artist-living-sculpture-starts-dying-david-nash-stoical-life-death-ash-dome-1307201
Second Image: Finchwake, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ash_Dome_-_Living_Sculpture_by_David_Nash.jpg
4. POETRY: Seoung Ryul, the Korean artist’s work can be found at the Bisou Gallery, https://www.bisougallery.com/ and on Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/sseongryul/
5. PROFILE: From “Discovering What Matters: Embracing a Life of Meaning (Kathleen Norris): https://christthekingpriory.com/retreats-schedule/2023-discovering-what-matters-embracing-a-life-of-meaningkathleen-norris
6. FILM: From “Top Running Moments from Dubai 2019 World Para Athletics Championships | Paralympic Games,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcfL3bakqic
7. ESSAY: From Collett’s Mountain Holidays, Camino de Santiago Walking Holidays – Way of St. James. https://www.colletts.co.uk/holidays/hike-camino-de-santiago/
8. BOOKS: Seoung Ryul, the Korean artist’s work can be found at the Bisou Gallery, https://www.bisougallery.com/ and on Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/sseongryul/
9. DIG DEEPER: From Schindler Intruss Escalator Modernization
https://www.schindler.com/en/escalators-moving-walks/modernization/intruss-escalator.html
10. ROOTED: Joaquim Mir Trinxet, Camí de la Cova de Montserrat (Path to the Holy Cave in Montserrat) (1931) Museu de Montserrat, Montserrat, Barcelona, Spain.
TEAM CULTIVARE: Duane Grobman (Editor), Greg Ehlert, Bonnie Fearer, Lisa Hertzog, Shinook Kang, Eugene Kim, Olivia Mather, Andrew Massey, Rita McIntosh, Jason Pearsonn (Design: Pearpod.com)
WE'RE LISTENING:
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and suggestions for future issues.
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