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