And So The Journey Begins

I have the feeling that this is the start of a long journey. I hope so anyway! Not necessarily an arduous journey, simply a journey, simply a journey that is, whatever it turns out to be. I am hoping to be able to enjoy the scenery along the way.

This all began this winter while walking our 7 year old lab, Suzy. I've been walking her for almost two years now, and I've been aware the whole time of her own gleefulness at being outside, her jittery excitedness at walking and walking. I've also been hyper-aware of her tendency to keep stopping and smelling everything known to man (and some things not!). So mostly our walks consist of me trying to walk fast and "hard" ... and Suzy wanting to meander along. She stops to smell EVERY thing... dried up leaves, empty yogurt cartons, cracks in the sidewalk, dirty snowbanks, piles of you-know-what, and God/Goddess knows what else.

Usually when she stops to smell something, I tug on her leash impatiently, or I wait while she sniffs around, tapping my foot, checking my watch, wondering how long it will be before she MOVES again, hoping that I'm still getting a good cardiac workout.

One day this winter, though, I found it within me to pay attention to her while she was doing her sniffing thing. And I thought, "Hmmm... She evidently finds that scummy snowbank fascinating, so she is stopping to explore it and she doesn't care one whit what I think about it."

Which led me to think that maybe whe SHE was standing still, sniffing, maybe I could also STAND STILL, not just in my body but in my mind and spirit as well.

So I tried doing that a few times and you know what? It was a MUCH better walk!

I stopped one time while she was sniffing around, stood very still, and looked up into the sky, surprised to see there a perfect formation of 9 geese, happing honking their way westward.

And after a week of that, I though, "WOW, wouldn't it be cool if I could do this in the course of my daily life also? What if I stopped to stand still several times throughout my day instead of moving, moving, MOVING from one thing to the next with no space in between?"

Thus, this blog has been born! I decided that if I knew I was going to post here every day about one or more of my daily Stand Stills, then I might actually be encouraged to do more than just THINK about it.

So here I go...

And the STANDING STILL EXPERIMENT is born.