Is There Time To Breathe In Your Life?

Is there time to breathe in your life? Or do you constantly rush from one task to another, go to the next meeting or event, attend the next ball game or play, pick up Jason and drop off Mary, then turn right around and drop Mary and pick up Jason – oh, no, you should have picked up Mary, picked up dinner and gotten home to help Jason with his science project before putting a load of clothes in the washer, loading the dishwasher and preparing lunches for tomorrow, setting the table for breakfast and finding that Mary’s favorite cereal is all gone, so it’s a late night run to the store before you get your clothes ready to wear to work tomorrow, set the alarm……and then it goes off. You start all over again.

In the scenario above, you could barely take a breath because there were just a few punctuation marks. But how often in your day can you honestly say that you breathe – really breathe? And , I don’t mean the kind of breathing that keeps us alive, but deep, mindful breathing that allows us to see exactly where we are and to consider if what we are doing is necessary or is it” to stay busy,” compete with someone else for “busy-ness,” to look busy – busy is important – looks like success - right?

Are you a success as a parent if the only time your kids see you is in the car or once in a while when they go to bed at night?

Are you a success as a son or daughter when you can’t spare 10 minutes to talk with your mom or dad on the phone, or drop by to say “how are you?”

Are you a success at work when you take on more than you can really do - to impress the boss? You may end up with tasks done, but you aren’t proud of your work. It’s held together with tape and substitutes for the work you didn’t have time to complete.

Henry David Thoreau once said, “(It’s) not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” If you can’t take time to breathe, you probably are looking at life in a blur as you speed past, but not seeing. You are listening, but not hearing. You speak, but you’re just making noise, not saying anything that will uplift, calm, teach, comfort or spread happiness.