I’ve been chewing on these words for the last couple of days:
I want to live a life that takes time to notice things that other people are overlooking. One that slows down to sit and soak up the beauty. One that creates space for the “wow” moments. – Jeff Goins, The In-Between
Photo Credit: kevin dooley via Compfight cc
Where are you in the season of your life? Are you too busy?
I fight busyness a lot and over the last few months I’ve realized it’s been winning. I don’t like it. It doesn’t allow margin in my life. It doesn’t fit with my life plan. My one word for 2013 is “intentional,” and busyness gets in the way of that.
I’m not a fan of waiting, especially when it comes to fixing things. If someone has a problem, myself included, I want to find the solution as soon as possible. This isn’t always a bad thing, but sometimes I can be so intent on making things happen that I miss the message of the trial.
Being in a hurry all the time is stealing life from me and I only get to live once.
I’m realizing some days I need to put the iPhone down, stop capturing moments for the Instagram world, and actually absorb them for myself.
Last week I visited a friend on a farm in Louisiana. I knew the moment I hit the dirt road that I was in for a treat. I was surrounded by stillness, pear trees, and a three-legged cat. Life wasn’t busy.
Live a life that takes time to notice things that other people are overlooking.
My friend Jennifer and I took a morning walk along the 120-acre farm. Grasshoppers seemed to follow. The view of the dirt road took me back to days of living in my hometown.
The friendship that has been flourishing for the last five years is in a different place – a good, better place. How do I know? Because I took the time to notice.
Slow down and soak up the beauty.
I don’t do this often enough, but I want to. One morning on the farm, I sat outside on the front porch and listened. There wasn’t the sound of a cell phone, no one chatting on Skype, and Facebook managed to survive without me.
I sat. I soaked. I smiled. In this midst of doing nothing but sitting in a chair, I felt accomplished. Accomplished because at that very moment I was soaking up the beauty, not focusing on the expectations I put on myself.
Create space for the “wow” moments.
I’m not sure I know what this looks like yet, but I look forward to finding out. I don’t think a “wow” moment has to have fireworks and a front page story on the newspaper. These moments can be simple, yet profound.
I remember a time four years ago when I didn’t have the money for gas, much less a Starbucks coffee. I told God I would love a coffee. It was child-like faith. When I got to my friend Jammie’s office, her boss pulled out his wallet, asked her to grab him a Starbucks, and get one for her friend, too. (That was me.)
That was a “wow” moment. I savored every moment of that coffee. I was 25 years old and crying my eyes out with joy over a coffee. Why? Because God provided something that seems so small, yet it was huge to me. Wow is a great way to sum it up!
I’m transitioning out of the busyness in my life, so that I may enjoy the in-between. I’m realizing there is too much on my plate and I’m putting the art of delegation into practice so that I may have more “wow” moments, no matter how big or small.
Jeff Goins talks about these “wow” moments in his new book, The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing. It doesn’t release until next week, but you can pre-order it. You won’t regret it.
May we learn to live in the in-between together and create space in our lives for those “wow” moments.
What do you need to get rid of in your life to create more space? Leave a comment below…
Sundi Jo, reading this post was a WOW moment for me. Well done, obviously, I loved it.
Well – that makes me smile.
“I can be so intent on making things happen that I miss the message of the trial.” So true, Sundi Jo! Great post.
Thanks, Eileen.
Beautiful and thought-provoking. Thanks for sharing your heart.
Thank you for stopping by Lisa.
Love this Sundi Jo! I grew up in the country and sometimes I convince myself that the only way to get peace is to live in a slow, rural area again. However, my wow moments aren’t precluded by where I live. Your story of the unexpected gift of coffee makes me smile ~ and I’m sure it made God smile as well that you received His gift with gratitude 😀
Thanks, Caryn. Here’s to some more great wow moments.
Lovely post Sundi Jo.
Thank you Ian.
Sundi Jo,
I LOVED your post. You captured one part of his book so well. You just took it and illustrated it beautifully. So much time is wasted by looking for the next thing, our eyes miss what’s right before us. Love the coffee story. God does a lot of things like that, we just have to notice.
You’re right, Anne. I don’t want to be too busy that I don’t notice. Thanks for stopping by.
This is my heartbeat right now too, Sundi Jo. I really want to smell the roses and savor every day of my life. I recently lost a good friend (she was 73) and death always makes us reflect more on the meaning of life. Blessings, Amy
May we smell them until we can’t smell anymore, or a bee flies up our nose. 🙂 Sorry about your loss.