In Kanyen’kéha (the Mohawk language), there are different verbs for acting slowly and acting quickly.

Wakatihsnó:re – I am quick to act

Wakatihsá:yen – I am slow to act

The pace and rhythm are embedded in the verb itself, they are not just adjectives that can be dropped and added at will.

My rudimentary language of Kanyen’kéha does not allow me to imagine possible contexts for using these verbs, but my imagination easily draws parallels. Most of the time, I wakatihsnò:re : I am quick, reactive, swept off my feet, unable to slow down, torn between fatigue and frustration. By contrast, these few days of the new year I wakatihsá:yen – act very slowly. These days, I find slowness and nothingness particularly appealing.

The slower I move, the more powerful I feel, like a well-rooted tree, unmoving and leafless, but very much alive under its winter nakedness.

Like many indigenous languages of the Turtle Island (North America), Kanyen’kéha is holophrastic, that is, a single Kanyen’kéha word can express a complex idea or a phrase that would require many words in English. A single verb can express a lifestyle of wholeness, healing and liberation: I.ACT.SLOWLY.

Sometimes I am try to imagine my day as if it consisted only of Kanyen’kéha verbs:

I slowly walk on fresh fallen snow

The sky slowly turns from white to pink to pale violet

Winter slowly turns into a false spring, then into blizzard

I feel awake