Earlier in the day I read this article by Wes and smiled at the thought of a 15 minute celebration break – as I then continued on at breakneck pace to accomplish the tasks with “today” invisibly written on them. Dashing off to pick up the mail I rolled my shoulders to ease the tension in them and realized that the distance between my shoulders and earlobes was decreasing! Soon my feathery silver dangling earrings would be brushing my shoulders! My thoughts swirled about in my brain as if in a tumble dryer that had no off switch.
After stopping at the local post office I guided my little VW down the hill to the waters edge to take one of those 15 minute celebrations! I just needed to breathe, breathe, breathe.
The Strait of Georgia stretched out in the distance but the ocean exhaled rhythmically on the shore close by. The smell of salt water and fish was in the air as the brisk cool wind ruffled my hair, gave me goose bumps and made my eyes smart and my ears ache. Frogs croaked in stereo from their hiding place under logs that had washed up on shore after escaping the log boom that slowly headed to the mill near Vancouver. The drying leaves had more staccato in their lilting melody, and some sunflowers stood proudly up against a cottage daring autumn to steal the remains of summer from their plot of soil.
As I swung my limbs trying to ease the tension; exhale it, inhale those unforced rhythms of grace, to slow down and just breathe, breathe, inhale, exhale. I thought of what Anj writes here on the stiffness she experiences and how she no longer has this ease of movement and how that affects her life. The unforced rhythms of grace do not depend on my ease of movement but on my breathing in, and breathing out that grace, which, like the water in front of me, stretched into the horizon beyond my vision, past my comprehension.
This short space of time drew up the breathing of the Spirit from the artesian well They have placed within. The visible horizon was a reminder to keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly (Matthew 11:30 Message)
I am grateful, as my shoulders lower, my breathing slows, and the tension begins to ease, for these words in the Psalms: You didn’t leave me in their clutches (tension/business) but gave me room to breathe. There was a breath of worship in there, in gratefulness as I joined every living breathing creature praising the Almighty, as He breathed upon creation in this 15 minute celebration! Maybe it was a 15 minute choir practice!