We cannot stop the whirling change that is moving around us by force of will. Any big thing we do, is sure to bring about another dizzying swirl. So how can we stop spinning and find our center?
Have you moved along a busy store aisle lately, full of holiday shoppers? If you don’t go to stores anymore, perhaps you can call to mind your last in-store holiday rush. There is no way to soothe the harried shoppers rushing by.
Even still, sometimes I pause in the middle of a busy aisle, pretending to look at something on one of those big sale racks—the ones where the workers have placed all the things that must sell as quickly as possible.
I stand there, shoppers rushing, talking, laughing, stressing. Some of them dread the number that will greet them on screen at the end of the checkout line. Others are only worried if they will find everything they want.
Standing there I notice I am still while they move. I remember, the stillness and rest is always right there, underneath each moment.
In stillness, I can notice the fullness of the people around me. Rushing to care, to give, to accumulate, to perform, to keep up. Snarky remarks. Jokes. Arguments. Helping.
All the things that make us human swirling in eddies and waves. Most of us caught up in the surface action. Few of us tapping into something that will sustain all this swirling.
How will this energy send us into the new year? Will we spin into the next eddy, or dip down to the center?
Finding your center is not so much a search for something missing, as it is tapping into what is already there.
What helps you tap in: is it an excuse to pause amidst the swirl, or do you need quiet all around? In this month of starting anew, may we all find what we need to tap into stillness.
Blessings,
Rev Pippin
