Stop the sun?

“To meditate is to live simply and honestly in the world as it is.”

– Jonathan C. Smith

Today I have had some reflective time – a little bit of still. I realize anew how often I “run” - for running’s sake. My compulsion is to see it all, hear it all, do it all. [Often I ask myself “Am I doing it to get it done, or am I doing it to do it? How about a little more intention and presence in this moment, dear self?]

A little while ago I got to be with grandson Noah and enjoy his toddling ‘running’ as we explored the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I love his exuberance and his movement: just right for his stage of development.

For me though, in this time of life, I am being invited into a different movement, or lack thereof. I get to do some standing still now. I get to be here now, become myself: oh my, even stop the sun?

Now I become myself.

It's taken / Time, many years and places;

I have been dissolved and shaken, / Worn other people's faces,

Run madly, as if Time were there.

Now I stand still, to be here, / Feel my own weight and density...

My work, my love, my time, my face

Gathered into one intense

Gesture.

So all the poem is, can give, / Grows in me to become the song,

Made so and rooted by love,

Now there is time and Time is young.

O, in this single hour I live

All of myself and do not move.

I , the pursued, who madly ran,

Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

-by Mary Sarton