That’s me, trying to make any progress at all with family, in work, relationships, self-image: scootch, scootch, stall; scootch, stall, catastrophic reversal; bog, bog, scootch. I wish grace and healing were more abracadabra kinds of things; also, that delicate silver bells would ring to announce grace’s arrival. But no, its clog and slog and scootch, on the floor, in silence, in the dark.

Anne Lamott

“Bodies,” section two in Anne Lamott’s Grace (Eventually) Thoughts on Faith offers me solace. I have been learning a lot about incremental progress, even and perhaps particularly slow incremental progress, as the key to grace and healing. I am reminded of one of my favorite yoga teachers who talks about inches of progress on our mats. I am reminded of the theory that we can live life with a dial and mindfully move our dial’s settings between ease and difficulty. I am reminded of the power of a steady flowing river to carve stone. I am reminded of a seed that grows. There is something incremental in all that for me; something like bog and clog and slog and scootch. Bog and clog and slog and scootch are about persistence and strength and hope. As Lamott suggests, grace and healing are found in all that. There is a connection between external and internal work. There is a connection between physical, emotional, and spiritual growth. They all rely on the capacity to bog and clog and slog and scootch.

I completely get what Lamott is talking about when she talks about what progress really looks like across all areas of life. One small example. Right know I am trying to learn to eat slowly. Literally, I am practicing bogging and clogging and slogging and scootching through my meals. The idea is that slowing down gives time for my body to savor and enjoy and become full. I am learning slow eating hacks – sitting my fork down between bites, eating half of the portion I am served at a restaurant, putting only half of what I want to eat for lunch out on my plate – to train my mind into slowing down long enough to become full. Mindfulness is at the heart of it. Being mindful of what I eat and understanding that, overtime, I will make progress toward better habits and healing and grace (eventually).