“Don’t just do something, stand there…” says the Rabbit

I’m late!
I’m late!
For a very important date!
No time to say
“hello”, goodbye!
I’m late!
I’m late!!
I’m late!!!

No, no, no, no
I’m overdue!
I’m really in a stew!
No time to say “goodbye”, hello!
I’m late!
I’m late!!
I’m late!!!

As I made my way outside this morning in order to move some chairs onto the back deck, before I started mopping the house, I spy the most delightful image….

There was such a sense of contentment radiating from this little deer, as it bedded down in the warm sun, waiting on mom to finish breakfast. I felt tremendously privileged to be a solitary witness to this most wonderful interaction between a doe and her fawn. I too suddenly was overcome by a quieting sense of contentment–a most welcomed feeling of peace.

Our lives are lived at such frantic paces. We desperately fight to turn a single 24 hour period of time into at least a 30 hour day. I fear however 30 hours would never be enough. Dashing about, no time to eat, no time to see loved ones, no time to sleep…no time, no time…we’re late, we’re late, always for the proverbial important date.

We dash about like the poor frenzied White Rabbit in Lewis Carol’s classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland–making no sense in our rantings as we run from one appointment to the next….With Time always the silent enemy.

“What do you know about a frenetic pace Julie? Aren’t you some kind of retired educator? Isn’t your home the celebrated empty nest? What do you know about my busy life….?” I hear you…and I know sadly a great deal about spending a life on the go. I use to think, and rightly so, that my child spent more time in the car and at school than he ever spent at our home.

I was the “queen of squeeze”—squeezing precious seconds out of minutes, minutes out of hours, hours out of days….and the most pitiful of all, life out of me and my family—-my gut in knots, my nerves frayed, my stress high, my time filled and my life slipping silently away…for what you ask? I in turn ask you the same, “For what?”

Why do we live our lives sucking the life out of the clock? Why do we think we have to cram all of our minutes full with all the needless activities–our children are over scheduled, we, ourselves are over scheduled. Is the world a better place because we race around mindlessly from one meeting, class, activity, conference to another thinking, wrongly, that we are most important because we are most busy…..

I am grateful for the moments such as this morning. Time stops…or actually I stop, time continues rushing past I, however, gratefully stop. This single moment is frozen in time and I am frozen along with it…privy to a single moment of contented blessed peace.

I exhale. Had I been holding my breath? How long? How long have I been standing here, starring? Relishing. Seeing. Being….happy, content?

Don’t always be in such a hurry. Listen to the Rabbit–don’t just do something…stand there… to see, to breath, to live…..