When was the last time you sat with a thought? Breathing in a stillness of concentrated contemplation. Repeated the thought silently in your head. Resisted the urge to reach for your phone to check new likes on Instagram. Mechanically scrolling through an endless stream of other peoples pictures and thoughts. Double tapping on a beach sunset, a beautiful yoga pose, that quote that resonated with that exact moment only to find yourself 10 minutes later far from the first thought.
I’ll be the first to admit that I rarely allow myself to slow down and sit in my own mind. I am constantly craving moments like this so that I can collect all the things that are firing around in my head like agitated atoms but then I think about all those ideas bouncing around and I’m completely overwhelmed by the notion of trying to focus on just one … and then I turn on the t.v. instead. We are living in the golden age of technology. We are connected to everything all at once. Even when we “unplug” do we really unplug? Probably not. Instead, we just lessen the amount of time our phones are in our hands. I’m not advocating for a full shutdown of social media. It’s my livelihood. Please keep sharing and engaging online. But, I wonder what it would look like if we took one thought a week and sat with it for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour *gasp.* How might that change the way that we focus on the task before us? How would it change the way that we respond to a complicated situation? What possibilities might present themselves once we began thinking about them?
Even this post was written in disjointed spurts between a thousand other to-do’s. Taking the time to take the time is much easier said than done. So, what would your big thought (or little thought) be this week? Will you make time to think about it? I’m going to try. We’ll see how it goes. Will you join me?
Dreaming Eyes of Wonder 