Silent and Still
Think of a time when you were truly, 100%, all-the-way there. For me, this was a distinct moment on our recent family vacation. We were seated in the amphitheater at the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Southern New Mexico. The sun had just set, and the Park Ranger had suddenly stopped his presentation whence the bats began flying out of the cave’s natural entrance.
Just prior, the ranger had instructed everyone to remain perfectly silent and to completely power down all of our phones and electronics for the duration of the bats’ journey. Not even photos were allowed.
For a few minutes there, the world was silent and still. (Even my children and all the children around us were transfixed!) It was a beautiful and magical span of time, and one that took hold of me, reminded me exactly where I was and what it meant to be a living being.
The other moment when I was truly there was later on our trip when my eldest got stung by a wasp, but that’s a different story…
Both moments shared one specific element: they were arresting, and they stopped time in their tracks. My mind was nowhere else but right there. That’s what it means to savor the time we have, whether it’s a fight or flight, it’s those moments that bring us to into reality.
I don’t know about you, but I am constantly striving to make the moments more arresting. Someway, somehow, it’s possible to be the motions, instead of just going through them.
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Photo by Igam Ogam on Unsplash