Sunday 26 June 2011

Too Busy To Be Still

2011 is fast passing us by - term 2 is almost over and the mid-year break here. Where has the year gone? I look at this blog and realise that Father Glenn has been a little slack – there seems always to be too much to do. The only comfort I have is that all around me seems to be just as busy.

I have vague memories of the promise of new technology to free us from all the mundane little things which clogged up our lives and it would provide us with so much free time we would not now how to fill in our days. What happened? With all the technological gadgets and the amazing range of options and choices we rarely find a few moments just to stop and reflect.

When do we actually breathe slowly, not frantically as we dash from one event, one chore, one activity to another? When do simply sit without checking our emails, Facebook or the latest app on our iPad? When do we listen with full attention to our children laughing, bickering, talking or crying? When do we give uninterrupted time to our partner instead of watching the clock ready to shoot off to the next deadline?

Yes, our world is full of BIG questions we all need to engage in but the BIGGEST, the watershed question for each of us, I believe, is to be still long enough to listen, hear, reflect and become capable of engaging truthfully and completely in life.

Psalm 46:10 reminds us to “Be still and know that I am God!” Time for reflection, a few moments of meditation, a time to just sit reminds us to let go of our addiction to frantic action and rediscover our place in creation and the one who created us. Slow down, be still and rest is the call, and rest and calmness will return.

Meditation is one the tools we can use for this. A useful site for those wishing to pursue meditation is: www.wccm.org

Try it. It does help.