To Lie Still
June 19, 2007
Strange Connections :: 6" x 6" mixed media on wood
"There are strange connections everywhere and messages waiting for us if only we take the time to pay attention and listen quietly. Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to take the peaceful road and approach whatever task is before us – pleasant, unpleasant or otherwise – with gentle steps. To be vulnerable like a fawn, trusting there is someone watching over us, trusting it is OK to lie still."
I still feel like a rookie in the art of walking through life at a slower pace, but even in these early stages of trying to Avoid A Frantic Life I am already breathing easier. I still feel moments of overwhelm, where I want to take on anything and everything I can, but I am learning to let those urges come on in and then find their way out on their own. One exercise I have started to develop is a growing mental checklist of warning signs that my schedule is getting out of control. Perhaps it isn’t a checklist as much as a manifesto – a list of things that might seem simple on the surface but that are good litmus tests for the kind of person I want to be. So far my list goes something like this:
My life is getting too busy and out of control if:
* I do not have time to write handwritten thank you notes.
* I do not have time to exercise.
* I can’t remember the last time I talked to a few very important individuals in my life with whom I require consistent contact in order to stay sane (Hi Melissa!)
* My last written journal entry was…that long ago?
* We run out of milk or toilet paper.
I know this list will grow, but it is interesting to see what little tasks and activities pop into my brain when I think about what possible warning signs might be available to me to let me know I’m pushing too hard. It has always been important to me to do whatever I can to be fully present in each moment, but I am realizing now that a lot of that has been big talk and not enough action (or would it be not enough inaction?) I look around at the world and see too many people trying to cram too much into too little time and it exhausts me just being an observer. So many people seem to have the mantra of, "Nice to see you, but I’ve gotta GO…" I realize life – with all of our commitments, responsibilities, jobs, kids, homes, businesses, dreams and passions – calls upon us to ACT, to move forward and do all the things we are supposed to do, but I cannot help but feel that somehow humanity has lost its way, and that we could all use more help and encouragement in the art of slowing down, saying no and sitting still for just a little longer than we think we can.
That is my wish for the world right now, that life does not feel like a blur of days melting into one another with no time to breathe, but that our days can be a wonderfully gooey mound of clay that we are able to more carefully shape to meet our quieter, softer needs.
Carving out that time is essential. I think that unless I consciously insist on the time to slow down and get really still the moment never ever comes otherwise.
I love that list! I’ve never thought of things in terms of that… if I could just present this list to my activities director at the high school I worked at last year, I could explain to him that he was INSANE to expect me to do all that on top of teaching.
Good thing that’s over with… I’m going to tape this list to my brain, try to remember it as I face another school year in a new setting.
Yes. True, deeply true. I love the resonance between your wish for the world and the changes you are making for yourself. Gandhi would approve (be the change you want to see in the world). I have slowed considerably in the past two years and I realised it when I spent some time at a very, very slow and gentle retreat last week. It felt very natural and comfortable for me, two years ago it would have been a massive adjustment. I also like the list of “warning signs” and I think I’ll make my own!
Your words speak directly to me. I have realized that once I slow down I am able to really enjoy my days fully. When life is busy and I am cramming too many things into them I never have time to enjoy those intimate connections that make life so memorable. Like dinner with my parents, a vacation to my aunt and uncles, and laughing at nothing with my novio. These are the times I look back on with a smile.
Thank you for reminding me that it is important to slow down. Like it has always been said “stop and smell the roses.”
your voice is full of wisdom. i wish i have enough to remember your words and slow down. somedays everything is going so fast- i feel like i am on the verge of loosing it. then i wish & wish till the slow days come. the balance is what i find dificult. the fast days come together, full of work, work, more work. & when the slow days come there is none. i love my work & i wish for it to be intersperced with silence & peace & reflection. i wish that for myself. i wish to be a better person. sorry for rambling. but thanx for your inspiring work
to my list i would add–my life is getting too busy & out of control if:
i have to dig through the dirty clothes and find the least dirty pair of underwear for my son to wear to daycare…
and i’ve had to do that more than once in the past few weeks…UGH!
Man, are you talking to me???
I love your list.
For me, I would add: Rushing my husband out the door in the morning so I can get on with it. (I hate it when I catch myself doing this…)
xoxo to you!
p
I hope you don’t mind … and let me know if you do, I borrowed the image here and linked back to your blog as a beautiful blog I just found.
Glad to have found you.