Walking into town this morning, I passed a young woman with a small child. The woman was holding an empty pushchair, looking behind where the child was. The small toddler was walking very slowly. I smiled to myself thinking 'you can't be in a hurry when a small child wants to walk.' The mother knows where she's going and just wants to get there but for the child, it's a whole new adventure. She wants to look closely at everything and just take time to enjoy the freedom of walking and taking it all in. No doubt some things were new to her and so had to be investigated.
Those of us who are parents or grandparents remember well the times when our children discovered things for the first time. Oh the excitement; the look on their faces; sheer wonder at discovering something new.
It does seem a shame that much of that wonder of seeing life goes as we grow older. We can so easily get to the point of 'we've seen it all before' and dismiss the awesomeness of small things happening all around us. We are so often in a hurry just to get from A to B as quickly as possible. Busy, busy, busy; deadlines to meet; so much to pack into our 24 hours. And before we know it, the months and years have flown by.
I must say that as a retired person, I do have the privilege of not having deadlines to meet or places I must be. Still, it is a good reminder to occasionally just stop and notice the small details of everyday life. Take time, take a deep breath and enjoy just being alive. Don't let life slip by without taking time to enjoy it.
When I receive an online order form my local supermarket, fruit and salad goods are put into a paper carrier bag. The intention, of course, is to show just how 'green' they are by using paper carriers and not plastic bags. (The fact that they still use plastic bags for other produce is beside the point!) This has been going on for quite some months so I was surprised the other day to notice something about the paper carrier that I hadn't noticed before. Apart from their name, there was some other writing on the bag. I read it and found that it was a useful tip for peeling root ginger. Why hadn't I noticed that before? I then started looking at other bags (I don't throw them away but keep them for recycling) to see how many other tips I had missed without realising.
They say that seeing is believing but actually when I read the tip about peeling ginger, I thought about it and then decided I needed to try it just to see if it was as they advocated - and yes, it works exactly as they say it will and so easy. That's something I will be doing from now on. Of course it could well be that other people already knew this but it was new to me. It did set me thinking about how much I just glance over things out of familiarity without really noticing. How much might I be missing?
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We live in an instant, press-button world where things are done so quickly and for efficiency, so it's claimed. The other day I read on a social media about someone who had gone walking with a friend who walked really slowly. The friend's reasoning behind this was, 'When we walk too fast, we forget to be with each other.' I like that. How often in life do we walk so fast that we forget to be present to the moment? How often do we just skip over things without spending time to really notice or listen? I guess that as a pensioner, I'm fortunate that I am able to spend possibly a little more time on things - or maybe it just takes me longer now to do things that I did more quickly before! But seriously, we tend to fill our lives with busyness and so miss much that could be beneficial. I remember when I first retired there was a real danger of suddenly overfilling my diary thinking that now I had nothing else to do! Then you find that you're busier than when you had employment.
If only we took notice of God's wisdom, making sure that we have a day of rest. For those whose 'day of rest' is actually quite busy, maybe you should choose another day to rest. He also tells us 'Be still and know that I am God'. Stop, look and listen or we'll miss so much of real value, for us and for others.
I was on the bus going into town to do some shopping. Many of the usual faces that have a similar weekly shopping routine were also on the same bus. Some were deep in conversation while others sat in silence in the world of their own thoughts. The bus slowed as it got near to the roundabout and lined up behind a couple of cars waiting its turn to navigate around the roundabout. Suddenly my eye caught something moving just to the right and in front of the bus. It was a squirrel scampering across the road, missing any moving vehicles with such agility before jumping up into a tree on the other side of the road. It was so quick I almost missed it. I don't think anyone else actually saw it, except I reckon the bus driver must have noticed. Its speed and agility were quite outstanding. I thought of other creatures known for their speed - the cheetah, the fastest land animal that can run up to 75 miles an hour. However, the peregrine falcon is the fastest member of the animal kingdom being able to travel over 200 miles per hour. Wow, we would need to travel by car in order to compete with a cheetah and the peregrine is twice as fast as an express train. We still claim that humanity is the superior species!
Scientists are beginning to learn the secrets of many species of creatures. Have you ever tried to swat a fly without success? That's because the fly sees in slow motion so our quick action with the swatter appears slow to the fly giving it enough time to escape before the swatter reaches the place where it has been. Some creatures, like the North American caribou, see in ultra violet light while others see in infra red, allowing them to see things that we have great difficulty making out. There is a moth that can smell a future mate from up to 7 miles away while rats and moles smell in stereo, helping to locate food. Other creatures can hear sound inaudible to the human ear. Some dog owners use a special high frequency whistle to attract the attention of their pet - something they can hear but we humans can't. Other animals hear and use very low frequency sounds. There are many such instances of heightened senses in the animal world that are impossible for humans. When I think of the wonders of the natural world, it makes me aware of my limitations as a human being, in speed, sight, smell and hearing. Humanity is just beginning to tap into this wealth of knowledge and using it for good as in ultra sound scans and infra red cameras and binoculars that enable you to see in the dark.
The sad thing is that most of the people (if not all) on the bus that morning were totally engrossed in their own world of thought and conversation and quite unaware of life that was going on around them. I felt that I had just had a glimpse for a few seconds into a kind of parallel universe where life was lived without our being aware of it. When we consider the incredible variety and abilities in the natural world that is all around us, how can we not marvel at our wonderful Creator? What a Wonderful World! Indeed!!! I know that many live very busy lives and aren't as fortunate as I am in having the time to just be, observe and think. But I guarantee that if you can possibly make time, you will greatly enrich your life by doing so. Our God is a great big God and there is a whole great big world outside of the bubble I call my life. So much to see and so much to learn. Up until now I have only mentioned animal forms of life but the whole of creation has so much to teach us if we would stop, look, listen and learn.
Lord, remind me to make time to just be in your creation and be aware of what you want to teach me.
This week my nephew shared on Facebook a photo of his 4 year old son, Oliver looking very smart and all grown-up in his new school uniform ready for when he starts school in September. Time seems to have just whizzed by since he was born. I remember holding him when he was only a few days old. He was so tiny and fragile and now suddenly he's off to school! His first tooth, his first step, his first word are all now just memories. He now chats away and absorbs new information all the time. He seems to know things about how things work and which button to press, things that take me a while to assimilate. On seeing his photo, many memories came back of my own children also and how each precious moment soon becomes a memory. It was a sharp reminder for me to cherish the present and live now to the full.
Of course not all memories are so pleasurable. Some leave scars and hurt but all are incorporated and woven into the tapestry of our lives and go to make us the people we now are today. I wouldn't be the person I now am if I hadn't had the rough as well as the smooth. But all experiences good or not so good can leave us some worthwhile lesson. You never really learn patience if you've never had to wait for anything. You don't learn about hope until you feel down. Having to live without something helps us to learn the real value and appreciate what we do have. Remembering the past is not really the problem. The real problem is when we keep dragging the past into the present. What has gone cannot be changed. It has contributed to who we are today so be thankful for it and let it go. All we have is the now. That is why we need to enjoy the now to the full because it will soon become another memory.
There are those who are always hankering after some future excitement or big thing. They spend time (and often a lot of money) going from one big conference or gathering to another and totally miss the point that God is right where we are, here and now. We don't need to go looking for him, hoping that if we can get to that big meeting, He'll show up and bless us. We are the temple of God and He resides in us. Where we are, He is. Not everyone can write like J K Rowling or J R R Tolkien. Only a few people have actually reached the moon. It would be a dysfunctional business if all the staff were managing directors. Who would actually make the goods or clean the premises? It is good to have dreams and ambitions but some miss so much because their minds are on something else, always striving. Wherever we are and whatever we do in life, God is in us and shows Himself to others through us. Theodore Roosevelt gave some very sound advice when he said, 'Do what you can with what you have where you are'.
Today is a gift - use it and fill it so that tomorrow you will have beautiful memories. Look around you whatever your circumstances and find something to make you smile. Our children may be grown and left home already, or maybe you don't have any. You can still fill your today in such a way that in the future you can look back and smile. God's will is for us to live life to the full. Here's to a future full of happy memories.
The first half of this past week we have had some lovely weather and I managed to get into the garden and plant quite a few things - a few potatoes, carrots, peas and garlic. At least I have made a start and hopefully over the next days and weeks more will get planted. The lawn has had its first haircut of the year and my new lawn mower got used for the first time. The other day my son said that he wanted to help me in the garden. This was a bit of a surprise as he doesn't really like gardening but I wasn't going to argue. Maybe he's taken pity on his old mother! He did a great job in cutting down an unwanted tree and I'm sure I'll find many more jobs for him to do.
The latter half of the week has been quite cold with a great deal of fog well into the afternoon. But still the men came and finally mended the roof, replacing the tiles that had been dislodged and broken during the last storm we had. Slowly but surely it seems that life is taking on a more pleasant aspect. This week I also managed to finish the jigsaw puzzle that I started a couple of weeks ago. The trouble is there are 2 pieces missing and so that is now going out with the cardboard recycling next week. On the whole it has been a week like any other week - always busy, doing the odd jobs to keep the home running and even when not busy with some activity, there's planning, thinking ahead, sorting out and catching up with emails and blogs. One blog mentioned about someone who had returned to America after living in a country with a much slower pace of life. She commented how she noticed the difference:
I saw there was a direct correlation between an obsession with self and an exhausting pace of life, even when the obsession was on good, churchy things. ... ... centering an entire day around productivity or effectiveness as a goal equaled very little focus on other people. On relationships.
(Taken from http://www.aholyexperience.com, post entitled 'Why slowing down is paramount if we're ever to be the Body.')
It's so easy to get caught up in doing and achieving that we don't spend time slowing down. Even in the everyday, same old, same old. It is so easy and tempting to fill every minute with some activity to improve our situation or at least not to appear lazy. And even when physically we stop doing things our minds are often sorting things out so that we have slowed the body but not our inner selves. We still don't give our minds the space to just be and soak up God or give our time and attention to really listen to people without our minds half listening and half focusing on the next thing we need to be doing. As Christians our objectives should not be all about monetary gain and profit but about Kingdom values of relationship one with another and with God - a good lesson and one I need to constantly remember.
Those of us who are parents or grandparents remember well the times when our children discovered things for the first time. Oh the excitement; the look on their faces; sheer wonder at discovering something new.