Day 18: The Pause

 

"It's a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately filling up space." - Pema Chodron

This morning I stood by the kitchen sink mindlessly gulping down a hardboiled egg with my mind already speeding forward into all the things I had to do and was worried about. The mind can't tell the difference between a thought and an actual happening, so essentially I was already roasting that chicken, and searching for covid vaccine.

I stopped. I looked at the deep yellow yolk of the half eaten egg and told myself to slow down. For the first time, I tasted the egg in my mouth. Never known to be still for long, my mind chimed in with a string of comments and exclamations. But I had that moment of stillness, the pause, and it stays with me.

We have a choice to make during these challenging coronavirus days of sequestration. We can accept the invitation to slow down, pay attention and go inward. Or not. The risks both financial and physical are real, the losses scary, no getting around that. But if our meditation practice has taught us anything it is that we have input into what we think and how we feel.

Slowing down, pausing, is the rule of the day. Sit. Walk outside. Listen to the birds. Call a friend and then sit again. It will not change what's going on, but it will change our relationship to it. Reach out if you need support. In the process of physically distancing, a strange and wonderful closeness is happening. Pay attention. Pause. It's all part of the process.

May the force be with us! Stay safe and healthy. Keep going.