Just Be...

Today, I was given a blessing...well many, but right now I'm going to focus on the blessing of "just being." You see, it all started when the internet went out last night. Fast forward to today (no need to go through the details of it going down). I was given a window for the technician...and of course, he came on the VERY tail end of that 2 hour window...and if I had missed the "confirmation call" three hours prior to that, the appt would be cancelled. So, working out was out of the question (at least for the morning...and now, well let's face it, I'm not going to work out, or put makeup on).

What was I going to do with my time??  I've been reading a book called "Mitten Strings for God~Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry".  The first chapter is entitled "Dailiness" followed by chapters such as "Peace" and "Quietness" and "Simplicity" and "Breathing" and "Listening"...catching my drift??  It occurred to me that these are all things I long for but cannot find.  In her book, Katrina Kenison states, "Over the years, I have learned to quit speeding through life, but it is a lesson I must take up and learn again every day, for the world conspires to keep us all moving fast.  I have found that it is much easier for me to stay busy than to make a commitment to empty time--not surprising, perhaps, in a culture that seems to equate being busy with being alive.  Yet, if we don't attend to life's small rituals, if we can't find time to savor "dailiness," then we really are impoverished.  Our agendas starve our souls."

The words stared me in the face the first time I read them..."make a commitment to empty time..."  As I stood in the kitchen, after having unloaded the dishwasher, I simply stood there.  It was quiet...no hum of the computer or the tv (as our tv runs off of the internet)...empty time.  Yea, there were things to do, but I just stopped...what was so important that I couldn't take a few moments to slow down and read about "Listening" or "Quietness" or simply experience it?  Nothing.

And so there I was, in the Peace.  I picked up my book and reclined in the chair and read, for 30 minutes...I slowed down.  I got up then and didn't begrudge the mopping that had to be done...and actually did it without complaining...in the quiet.

I realized that I need to do this more often.  I need to "just be" more often and to "savor the dailiness."