Stillness

For one second...just be and breath like a bubble sitting for a blink of an eye on the water.
For one second...nothing to produce or prove.
For one second...nothing to do other than be open to the mystery and majesty of right now.
For one second...suddenly five or ten seconds have piled up

And the world is still spinning...and CNN hasn't broken down your door with breaking news...and nothing has imploded without you running yourself ragged.
How could this be?
How could everything just keep moving when we are not?
When did we get this sense that to rest is to rust?
When did we equate breathing and being with laziness?
When did we adopt the stink thinking that we are only what we produce or consume?

Perhaps like a sly, sneaking fox at the hen house, these words have been working and wiggling in our lives.
Perhaps like a stream over a rock slowly working away at the granite, these words have set up for us a false choice:
Either you work yourself into a frenzy or you freeload.
But to simply be in the stillness...
To intentionally and prayerfully set aside this second and the one after that and even...yes...the one after that might actually be good rather than avoided at all costs.

Just look...you have now been sitting there for over a minute. 
Still no one has broken down the door to see if you are okay.
What would happen if such a regular practice was part of your life?
Practice...not an obligation or demand...practice as in a basketball player taking free throw after free throw...not because she makes everyone perfectly...but actually because she wants to see what happens when she doesn't...learning from mistakes not success.

Let the stillness of these few fleeting seconds sing to your whole life today and tomorrow and may there be more than a trace of grace in this.

Blessings ~~