bird's eye view

Here in the city, silence is rare and solitude hard to come by.  When you're on the highway, it's a race to see who will get out of your way the fastest.  At the store, the crowd is a blur, everyone with his own mission, daring not to share it with another lest he be hindered in his pursuit of efficiency.  At work and at home, there is an invisible force field of tunnel vision that blinds us from the simple fact that

life is not a race.

Suppose we were levitate a mile above the map we live in, the places we frequent, the highways we so adamantly race down.  What would be seen?  The details would disappear, a tapestry of colors blurring away the busyness.  We would be able to see far beyond destinations that normally take hours to reach.  The sky would look bigger yet smaller at the same time.  We would feel tiny compared to the vastness of atmosphere.  Suddenly, calories wouldn't need to be counted, time constraints would fall away, replaced by simple awe.  Fears of life and failure, debts and obligations, present and future, would seem insignificant.

There would be silence.

I am rather fond of silence.  I crave solitude.  It comes as a surprise to people who don't know me well because, yes, I do have extrovert tendencies. But it's when I'm alone that I can truly think, dream, imagine.  It's in solitude that I can catch a ride on the winds of fresh perspective.  Here is where I can finally be still enough to hear His still, small voice.

"With all your heart you must trust the Lord and not your own judgement.  Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow." Proverbs 3:5-6 CEV

today wasn't my birthday

Today was another day.  It wasn't my birthday.  I didn't wake up early to rush around the house, collecting last minute items to stuff in a suitcase and drive to the airport at the crack of dawn.  There weren't holiday festivities to look forward to or a wedding to get dressed up for tonight.

It was just another day.

I woke up planning on going to the dentist, but my throat was sore so I rescheduled and slept in instead.  I planned on getting a bunch of odds and ends done between work and band rehearsal, but I wasn't able to do half of what I wanted to.  I'm tired now and should be sleeping since I'm opening at 4:30 tomorrow morning, except I just wanted to say that

THIS IS LIFE.

No matter who you are or where you live or what you're doing, these beautifully mundane days will always creep up on you.  These days are when I find out who I am.  I can make a choice to live like it's the life I dream of living, or else succumb to the disappointment of the dull, tedious moments.

I am reminded that God's ways and thoughts are higher than mine.  His perspective is that these rhythmic days will one day have morphed into something I'll refer to as a "season" that I'll look on with thankfulness and relief.  There are no in-between seasons.  God is always good, always right, and when He's silent, let it be enough to

simply

BE

with

Him.

xo,

jess