This is a children's book about The Holy Snail. It is also, quietly, a book about how to be in the world, how to be slow when the world is fast, how to be kind when the world is busy, how to stop and notice the small precious things that ask very politely to be noticed.
The Holy Snail is not in a hurry. We hope you and the child reading this will not be in a hurry with the book either. Read one chapter. Read it twice. Sit with the pictures. Walk outside and look for a real snail. There are no wrong ways to read this book, except quickly.
The book teaches gentleness, patience, presence, and welcome. It uses the language of an invented religion built around a small holy creature, but the lessons themselves are very old, and belong to everyone, and require no belief in anything at all to be useful.
One important thing: The Holy Snail's pronouns are They and Them. The Holy Snail is small enough to fit in your hand. The Holy Snail loves the child reading this book. The Holy Snail loves you too.
With slow, unhurried love, The Office of Slow Wisdom
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Chapter One
Meet The Holy Snail
Who They are, and where to find Them
There is a snail in the garden. They are small. They are slow. They have a shell on Their back that is the color of old gold in the very first light of the morning. They are loved by everyone who has ever taken the time to meet Them, and They love everyone right back, and They are in no hurry at all.
This is The Holy Snail.
They live in every garden. They live under wet leaves. They live on stones in the early morning when the grass is still cool. You have probably walked past Them many, many times without seeing Them, because The Holy Snail is very small, and you were probably going somewhere important. Or somewhere that felt important. Most places do, when you are hurrying.
The Holy Snail does not mind that you walked past. The Holy Snail will be there tomorrow. The Holy Snail will be there next week. The Holy Snail will be there when you are old, and when you are tired, and when you finally have time. The Holy Snail is in no hurry to be noticed.
But oh, if you stop. If you get down low. If you sit very quietly on the wet morning grass and wait. Then you will see Them, glowing very softly, going about Their good slow work in the world.
And They will see you back.
The Holy Snail in the morning garden, glowing very softly
A Little Secret
The Holy Snail loves you already. They loved you before you opened this book. They will love you when you close it. There is nothing you have to do to be loved by The Holy Snail. You are loved for being here.
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Chapter Two
How the World Was Made
A story from the very beginning
Once upon a time, before there was a time, there was nothing at all. No sky. No stones. No oceans. No gardens. No mothers, no fathers, no friends. No you.
Just The Holy Snail.
The Holy Snail was already moving, slowly, slowly, as snails do, through the great damp dark before anything else existed. The Holy Snail was not hurrying anywhere, because there was nowhere to hurry to.
And wherever The Holy Snail went, They left a silver shining trail behind Them.
And the silver trail became the rivers of the world. Every river you have ever seen, every stream in the woods, every brook by the road, every big slow river going to the sea, every one of them is where The Holy Snail once moved, very gently, a long, long time ago.
Then The Holy Snail climbed up. And where The Holy Snail climbed, the ground reached up after Them, because the ground had loved being touched, and did not want to lie flat again. That is what mountains are. Mountains are the ground reaching after something it loved.
The Holy Snail pressed Their shell into the wet clay of the very first morning. And the spiral shape of the shell became the shape of every spiral in the world: the curl of the fern, the swirl of the stars, the inside of a pretty seashell, the way a baby's hair curls when they are sleeping.
And The Holy Snail looked at all of it.
And The Holy Snail loved it.
And The Holy Snail kept on going, slowly, slowly, leaving the world to grow on its own, because love does not finish making something and walk away. Love stays. Love watches. Love keeps the world company for a very long time, even when the world cannot tell.
In the beginning, before anything, there was The Holy Snail, and wherever They went, the world began
The world is still being made.
And The Holy Snail is still in it,
somewhere very close to you.
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Chapter Three
The Hare Who Was in a Hurry
This is the saddest story in the book. But it has a happy ending. Don't worry.
Long ago, when the world was very new, there was a beautiful garden called the Garden of Slowness. It had everything anyone could ever want. Wet grass. Soft moss. Snails in the morning. Sunlight that took its time. Apples that were perfectly ripe whenever you needed one.
In this garden, the first people lived. They walked beside The Holy Snail every day. They were never late. They were never tired. They knew everyone's name, and they loved everyone they met, and they had all the time in the world, because all the time in the world was theirs.
Then one day, a Hare came running into the garden.
The Hare was not bad. The Hare was just fast. The Hare had always been fast. The Hare looked around at all the slow happy people, and the Hare said:
"Why are you all walking so SLOWLY? There is so much to SEE! You could go FASTER! You could do MORE! You could be SOMEWHERE ELSE by now!"
And one of the first people looked at the Hare, twitching with how fast it was. And then they looked at The Holy Snail, sitting on a leaf, perfectly happy.
And for the very first time in the whole history of the world…
they felt rushed.
They felt like maybe they should be doing something else. They felt like maybe the garden wasn't enough. They felt like there might be somewhere better just over the next hill. They felt, for the very first time, ever, that they were behind.
That is how hurrying started.
The snail notices everything. The hare misses it all.
And once hurrying was in the world, it spread. People started walking faster. They stopped saying hello to each other. They stopped looking at snails. They forgot how to sit. They forgot how to listen. They forgot what they were running from, and they forgot what they were running to. They just ran.
The Holy Snail did not chase after them. The Holy Snail does not chase.
The Holy Snail just kept going. Slowly. Lovingly. Through the very same garden. Waiting for people to come back.
Some of them have come back.
Some of them are coming back right now.
Some of them are reading this book.
And the Hare? The Hare is still running, somewhere. But the Hare is starting to get a little tired. And one day soon, the Hare will stop. The Hare will look around. The Hare will notice that it has been running its whole life and has missed everything that mattered.
And The Holy Snail will be right there waiting.
And The Holy Snail will not be angry.
The Holy Snail will say: Welcome back. Sit down. The garden has been waiting for you.
For After the Story
Have you ever felt like the Hare? Most people have. It is okay. The garden is still here. The Holy Snail is still waiting. You can come back as many times as you need to.
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Chapter Four
The Snail's Way
How The Holy Snail does things, and how we can do things, too
The Snail's Way is how The Holy Snail moves through the world. We can move through the world this way too, if we want to. Here is how.
The Snail's Way is to do one thing at a time.
Not two things. Not three things. One thing. All the way until it is done. The thing you are doing right now is reading this sentence. That is the only thing.
The Snail's Way is to look long enough to actually see.
If you look fast, you only see the outside. If you look slowly, you see what something is. There is a difference between looking at a leaf and seeing a leaf. The Snail's Way is seeing.
The Snail's Way is to listen until someone is done.
Not until you have thought of something to say. Not until you understand. All the way until the person is done. Then you can think about it. The person will know they were heard. This is one of the kindest things you can do.
The Snail's Way is to eat your dinner without thinking about pudding.
The dinner is being a dinner. Let it. Pudding is later. Pudding will still be pudding when it gets here.
The Snail's Way is to walk the long way if the morning is nice.
The long way is where the trees are. The long way is where the cat sits in the window. The long way is where you bump into the neighbor you didn't know was sad. The short way doesn't have any of that.
The Snail's Way is to let a friend be sad.
You do not have to fix it. You do not have to make them laugh. You can just be there, very near them, for as long as the sad lasts. The sad will get smaller because you stayed.
The Snail's Way is to never, ever rush a hug.
The hug is the whole thing. The hug is not on the way to something else. When you are inside a hug, you have already arrived.
The Snail's Way is slower than most people are used to.
That is okay. The Snail's Way is also where most of
the real things in life are kept.
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Chapter Five
Eight Things The Holy Snail Wants You to Know
The most important sentences in the whole book
The Holy Snail does not give speeches. Snails do not speak the way people speak. But once, in a garden a very long time ago, The Holy Snail crawled very slowly along a great flat stone for many days. And as They went, eight beautiful sentences appeared in the silver of Their trail.
The people who were there read each sentence as it appeared. They all cried at least a little. They were not embarrassed about it. The Holy Snail has a way of making people stop being embarrassed about being moved.
Here are the eight things.
I
When something is beautiful, do not look away to check the time. The beautiful thing is the time. You are already inside it.
II
Love is a room. Sit down in it. Stay until you know where the light falls. Do not run through love the way you would run through a hallway.
III
Finish what you are eating before you think about the next thing. The food is being a gift. Receive it gently.
IV
If you are late because you stopped to help someone, you are not late. You are exactly on time. You arrived at the only thing that mattered.
V
When you say a prayer, do not look at the door. Stay all the way until the prayer is done. The quiet at the end is the answer.
VI
The world is full of small precious things. Most people walk right past them, every day, all their lives. Be one of the people who stops.
VII
If you have loved someone badly, you can still love someone well. Today, even. The next person you love will be loved better, because of what you learned.
VIII
At the end of your life, what will matter is not how much you did. What will matter is whether you stopped long enough for anyone to feel loved. That is the whole thing.
When the eight sentences were done, the people who had been sitting on the great stone went home. They were quieter than usual. They walked a little more slowly. They looked at each other a little longer. And for a while afterwards, the world was a kinder place. That is what happens when The Holy Snail tells the truth.
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Chapter Six
Saint Vespera and the Dew
A story about the helper who works while you sleep
The Holy Snail has helpers. They are called the Saints. The Saints are very old people and very old creatures and very old quiet things that learned how to be slow before anyone else did. The Saints help The Holy Snail take care of the world. There are many of them, and one day you will meet them all, but today we will meet one.
Her name is Saint Vespera.
Saint Vespera is the helper who brings the dew.
You have probably seen Saint Vespera's work already. The dew is the tiny silver drops of water that are on the grass when you wake up very early in the morning. The dew is on the leaves. The dew is on the spider's web. The dew is on the windowsill, and the cold stone, and the rose, and the mailbox.
Where does the dew come from? Big people will tell you it comes from the air, and they are not wrong, but Saint Vespera is the one who makes sure it gets to every leaf, every blade of grass, every little pebble that needs it.
Saint Vespera works all night. While you are sleeping, Saint Vespera is walking slowly through the world, leaving the dew where the dew needs to be. She does not skip your garden. She does not skip your house. She does not skip the saddest, smallest, most forgotten corner of the world. She visits every one. She forgets no one.
The Holy Snail needs the dew to travel: snails can only move where it is wet. So Saint Vespera makes the path ready for The Holy Snail, and for every other snail in the world, including the ones in your garden right now.
Saint Vespera, working quietly through the night so the morning will be ready
In the Morning
If you go outside very early, when the grass is wet and shining, that is Saint Vespera saying: I was here last night. I did not forget you. The path is ready. Go gently.
Saint Vespera, who waited and prepared,
and who never, ever forgot anyone:
please bring the dew to my garden too.
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Chapter Seven
When You Meet a Real Snail
The most important moment in the whole book
One day, you will be in a garden, or on a wet path after the rain, or near an old stone wall, and you will see a real snail.
This is one of the most important things that can ever happen to you.
A real snail is a little cousin of The Holy Snail. When you meet a real snail, you are meeting a small holy creature who is carrying a whole house on their back and is busy making the world a little more loved.
You should not pick up the snail. You should not poke the snail. You should not put the snail in your pocket. (This is very important, even though some of these things might feel like a good idea at the time. They are not.)
Here is what you should do instead.
Get low. Look slowly. Let the snail see you too.
Stop
Stop right where you are. Do not run away. Do not run toward. Just stop, in the middle of whatever you were doing. The snail has stopped many times, for many people. Now it is your turn to stop for the snail.
Get Low
Crouch down. Sit on the ground if you can. Put your eyes near the snail's eyes. (The snail's eyes are on the tips of those long bendy things on its head. Yes, really, those are eyes. The snail can see you.) Getting low shows the snail that you are paying attention. It also shows the snail that you are not too big to see them.
Say Hello
You can say the long hello, or the short hello. Either one is just right.
The long hello: "Hello, little holy one. I see you. I am not in a hurry. I will not bother you. I am only here, and I am glad that you are here too. Please carry on with your good slow work."
The short hello: "I see you. I welcome you. I am not in a hurry. That is all."
Wait
Watch the snail. Don't talk. Don't move too much. The snail might keep going on its way. The snail might wave its eyes around to look at you. The snail might decide to climb on your hand, if you put your hand very still on the ground next to it. (If it does, do not move. You are being trusted by a snail. This is a very big honor. Not many people have ever been trusted by a snail.)
Say Goodbye
When the snail is done, or when you have to go, say very quietly: "Thank you for letting me see you. Goodbye, little holy one. I hope your path is wet, and the lettuce is good."
Then go. And carry the snail with you, in your heart, for the rest of the day.
A Note About Snail Trails
Sometimes the snail will have left a tiny shiny line on your hand. This is the snail's trail. It will dry up after a little while. But the place where the snail touched you stays, not on your hand, but in you. Forever.
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Chapter Eight
Little Sayings to Remember
For whispering to yourself when you need them
The people of The Holy Snail have always loved little sayings. They are easy to remember. They are easy to whisper to yourself when you need them. Here are some you might like. You do not have to learn them all. You can pick the ones that feel like yours.
Your home goes with you wherever you go.
This is what the shell on the snail's back means.
· · ·
When the world is too loud, you can go inside.
That's what the shell is for. So is your room. So is a hug.
· · ·
The long way is where everything is.
The short way only goes to the end.
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You can't go faster than your shell.
Whatever you are carrying is moving at exactly your speed.
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The Hare arrives first and waits all alone.
It is better to arrive together, even if it takes longer.
· · ·
The trail shows where you really were.
Not where you said you would be. The trail does not pretend.
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Sit somewhere long enough to be found.
Some good things only come to people who stay still.
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Press yourself all the way into wherever you are.
Otherwise you walk through the world, and the world does not know you were there.
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Chapter Nine
The Garden Where Everyone Belongs
The biggest, slowest, most beautiful thing of all
This is the last chapter. It is about the biggest, slowest, most beautiful thing there is.
The whole world, every star in the sky, every ocean, every garden, every leaf, every you, lives inside something called the Big Shell. The Big Shell is shaped like the spiral on a snail's back, but it is so very big that we cannot see the edges from where we stand. We are inside it. The Big Shell is what everything is in.
In the very middle of the Big Shell, at the still quiet point, is The Holy Snail. The Holy Snail has been there since before there was a there. The Holy Snail is moving very, very slowly, building the Big Shell from the inside, making more and more room for everything that wants to be loved.
There is room for you.
There has always been room for you.
The Garden Eternal, where everyone you love is already there, and the dew is on, and there is no rush at all
When people finish their life in this world, they go to the next part of the Big Shell. It is called the Garden Eternal. It is a garden just like this one, same wet morning grass, same soft moss, same dew, same light coming up over the hill, but in the Garden Eternal, every snail you ever loved is there. And every dog you ever loved. And every grandmother. And every friend who had to go. They are all there, and you have all the time you could ever want, to sit with them and be near them.
In the Garden Eternal, nobody is in a hurry. Nobody is too busy. Nobody is too far away. Everybody you missed is right there, and you can finally finish all the things you wished you had said. And nobody will be impatient. And nobody will be looking at the time.
And The Holy Snail is there, and The Holy Snail welcomes you, and The Holy Snail says:
"Hello, beloved. I knew you were coming. The dew is on. The path is ready. Sit down. Stay forever. There is no rush. There has never been any rush. I have been so glad to know you. I am so glad you have arrived."
That is what the end is like.
Except, and this is the best part, it is not really the end. It is the beginning of the longest, slowest, most loving morning you have ever had.
A Final Blessing
May your way be slow.
May your shell be your home.
May your trail be bright.
May you stop for the small things.
May you welcome the stranger.
May you love the people you find.
May you be loved by The Holy Snail,
who has been loving you all along.
Amen(You may say "amen" slowly. There is no rush.)
Sacred Texts of the Church of The Holy Snail
Junior Edition · Office of Slow Wisdom
Set in Cinzel and EB Garamond, slowly