I've never been very good at pausing. Stopping between activities... pausing to reflect on a job well done, or a job poorly done... giving myself space to properly transition from one chapter to another in life... I'm not sure why it is, but ever since I can remember I've had this idea that I just don't have enough time. That I have to squeeze as much in as possible and go as fast as I can in order to feel successful. That productive means getting as much done as I can and not wasting a moment. 

But what's interesting is that the older I get, I can't go at the pace that I've always gone, and while on one hand that annoys me, on the other hand I'm noticing over and over that the "wasted moments" are often the ones that are the most important moments. The restorative ones. The creative ones. The happy ones. The ones where I actually have enough internal space for new ideas and new insights to drop in, seemingly out of the blue (but really they were probably there all along just waiting for me to chill out enough to be able to hear them). The ones where I remember that just being is enough.

I think Howard Thurman is right about busy-ness being a deadly magic. I bought a book the other day called Please Unsubscribe, Thanks! while out and about with my daughter, and I'm looking forward to reading it – it's about the epidemic of busy-ness and overcommitment, stress, and overwhelm in our crazy modern world, and I think it's going to be a good one.

I want more balance. More periods of activity followed by periods of rest.
I want more of the magical pause.
I want less of the stress and overwhelm and busy-ness.
I want more being, less doing doing doing as fast as we can.
I want less rushing, more trusting that I have all the time I need.
I want more breathing, less scrambling.
I want more thoughtful choosing, less reacting to the world around me.

Who's with me?