The Speed of Life

I've blogged before about STOPPING when I am running ahead of myself and back in that frenzy of trying to get stuff done. I'd like to expand the analogy further.

I was speaking with a friend yesterday and when she asked how I was doing I said, "I'm on FAST FORWARD and I'm doing my best to get back to PLAY."

It was one of those statements that just comes out without any real thought but somehow manages to nail the experience perfectly.

Being on PLAY means allowing my life to unfold, moment by moment, without leaping ahead to see what's going to happen next. Since actually knowing what is going to happen is impossible (for most of us), being on PLAY is really the only way of being that makes sense. I can actually only ever be on PLAY. It's the thinking mind that tells me differently.

There is a woman I greatly admire called Sister Helen Prejean. Her experience as an activist against the death penalty was dramatized in a film by Tim Robbins called "Dead Man Walking" with Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.

The film was based on the book, which she wrote, and it's a very deep study on forgiveness and unconditional love. I read the book and was so moved by her account, so altered by her argument that I actually started thinking about following in her footsteps and becoming a nun.

Crazy, I know. A playwright who becomes a nun. Stranger things have happened.

It was my admiration for Sister Helen that prompted me to buy a book (the name of which I have forgotten and a quick search on the subject ended up in a dead end) containing a number of interviews with women of faith.

In Sister Helen's interview she said something that has not only stayed with me since, and it's been years, but I use often in a prayerful way:

Thank you for helping me to never leap ahead of Grace. Thank you for helping me to instead follow quietly with the gentleness of your Spirit.

That's being on PLAY. Following quietly, not leaping ahead, letting the moments unfold at the speed of life.

It is not easy to move at the speed of life but I can practice this way of being every time I remember to do so.

Inspiring Message of the Day: When I am on FAST FORWARD I can press STOP or PAUSE and then press PLAY. I can follow the Grace of being alive with quiet, gentleness and awe.