Just Stop.

When was the last time you just stopped? I don’t mean stopped at a traffic light or got caught in a traffic jam, but intentionally stopped and opened up all your senses – sight, hearing, smell, touch and to some extent taste.

Unfortunately, in the chaos of everyday life, the opportunities to stop and see, I mean REALLY see with all your senses is often lost under the “list of things to do”. This is unfortunate because in this haste and chaos so many amazing things are overlooked or glossed over. As you scurry down the street rushing to work, you might hear a bird chirping but you don’t have time to stop and listen to the bird’s song, try to spot it in the tree or marvel at the action of flight.

Now I am not suggesting that it would be appropriate to say to your boss that the reason you were late for work was because a bird was singing, but I am suggesting that at lunch time you find a park bench and just stop. Listen for that bird [or it’s friends]. Notice how the sun bounces off the concrete and glass of our urban world. Watch the other human animals scurrying past you and marvel at our ability to have such an impact on our world and at the same time be oblivious to it.

I am convinced that if we spent just a few minutes stopping, then we would uncover an amazing host of sights, sounds, textures and small miracles that have been there all along, but we were too busy to just stop.