Trusting Time…
If there has been one lesson that has been my life-long companion, it is to trust time… With a natural tendancy to want things fixed ‘yesterday’ …that has often been my challenge. Whether it was a mistake I made, a conflict unresolved or a goal unreached, it seemed I was always being reminded to heed the words of Simon and Garfunkel, Slow Down, You Move Too Fast…
We hear and read so much about slowing down, quieting ourselves and yes, living in the moment.
How often do we view posts from moms (and yes, dads!) on Facebook and Instagram, wishing they could capture and ‘freeze’ beautiful memory moments with their children. The mere name, INSTAgram, reminds us how fleeting time can be… and why truly, there is no need to rush.
I love places that do that for us; places that naturally invite and sometimes even force us to take in all that is about us. Usually, in these situations, we are often ‘ready’ to stop. To see. To hear. To feel. To be.
But what about when we’re ‘not so ready?’ The times when anxiety or fear nip at our peace of mind. When pressures at work or family struggles taunt us, making it hard to believe we’ll ever get past the crisis at hand. In times like this we are so tempted to push through, as if getting there faster will somehow alleviate the pain.
I remember when I was in high school, deciding what path I would follow. Planning my future, I always felt like I was waiting. Waiting to hear if I’d been accepted into college. Waiting to be old enough to drive…
Then, once I was in college I was waiting for the semester to end… Waiting to get out of the campus classroom and into an elementary school classroom. Waiting ultimately to get my own classroom, which seemed so far off in the distance.
Doing nothing was like climbing an endless staircase to nowhere.
Waiting seemed wrong, and foolish. Honestly, it took years of resisting the idea of doing nothing, before I could consider trusting time.
Now, looking back… perhaps the greatest lesson I have learned is that it is
IN THE WAITING that the lessons are taught. And learned.
When I stopped PUSHING, stopped wishing the present away because the future’s lure was blinding me to the lesson of now… THAT’s when SERENITY came…
“It’s funny… I was working on this actual post while my Godson [He turns 11 this week,] patiently waited for me to finish typing my thoughts so we could play The Game of Life.
“This is one of my favorite games to play,” he stated.
“Oh, why’s that?” I asked.
“Well, actually, it’s like life, and you can really learn a lot…”
I’m glad this time I was listening…
I hope that you will be making your blog into a book to be shared by more than those of us on Facebook. Your insights are powerful.
Thank you my friend, for your kind words of encouragement.