The Joy of Slowing Down

The world has slowed down. And so have I.

I have given more time to listening—listening to my heart, to the new season before me, and to my faith. In these moments, I trade chaos for contentment. These are the moments when my steps sing in joy. These are the moments when my true, genuine, and honest self comes to be.

In stillness, I grasp just how much I too often run throughout my days. I come to understand how little I stop to catch my breath. Slowing down has taught me what truly matters.

I don’t know how long it took me to realize this was a reality. This time we’re living in, it’s not a nightmare, it’s real.

May these times teach us how to be more loving, more forgiving and more compassionate. May they teach us what’s important and what really matters. May these times teach us that life is fleeting and things can change in the blink of an eye, so sometimes it’s better to say those words we’ve been dying to say, to make that call, to say I’m sorry or say I love you. May these times give us the push we needed to get things off our chests or apologize or express how we’re really feeling.

May they teach us not to take anything for granted; our family, our friends, our jobs and our own well-being. May these times remind us to take care of our bodies, our minds and compel us to change the things in our lives that disturb our inner peace or bring us down. May they remind us of how important it is to have a home we want to go back to, and people we want to stay stuck at home with. May they remind us that eventually we all have to rest our head on our pillows and think of what really matters without the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives. May these times force us to make long-term changes instead of chasing temporary happiness or instant gratification.

May these times remind us how to believe or hope against all odds just because we have faith that somehow when the hurricane is over, the rainbow will follow.

May these times teach us how to slow down, how to take a break, how to stop running around in circles because at the end of the day, when we were faced with a crisis, everything stopped, everything came to a halt, everything we thought couldn’t wait was postponed, the deadlines disappeared, the rules changed, the priorities were shifted and the show stopped altogether.

May these times teach us that there’s nothing in this life that’s truly guaranteed and maybe this is all one big slap on the face for us to remember what’s truly important and what’s worth our time. May these times teach us how to spend our coming days being kind to one another, not taking anything for granted, being more loving, more accepting and more compassionate. May these times teach us a better way to live and may it push us to reflect on the meaning of our lives and how to make the rest of our days truly count because we never know when there will be that day that will be our last.