Fast-Forward Or Play?

Currently, this world runs in Fast-Forward Time.

Rush, rush, rush, get that parking space at all costs--the one nearest the doors of the mall, so that you can hurry in and hurry out. 

Find the shortest check-out line in the supermarket, speed through that yellow traffic light, take the nondescript, walled-in freeway--it's so much faster.

Call ahead for Chinese food so you won't have to sit there with your spouse and wait in the quiet.

Hurry, hurry, hurry, even at home. Quickly unload the car and put the groceries away, hurry and do your homework, only time for a shower, never a bath or a song or a story. Answer the phone and the door and hurry and eat dinner so we can get going again.

The world is in Fast-Forward, but I am in Play.

I am still walking and noticing how the people in that lovely old Craftsman house repainted their porch and hung an airy green fern... and our neighborhood children have grown two-inches taller.

Still reading for fun in afternoons while summer hums and taking strolls and remembering when we had picnics at the lake with the church and with ourselves.

Still stopping for coffee at the supermarket and smiling while guessing peoples' stories and dreaming every chance I get so the dreams won't get lost.

Still listening to God-whispered secrets and clipping flowers,one perfect bloom by one perfect bloom in our yard for bouquets on our dining room table. And feeding seed to the morning birds and watching them eat the last of the raspberries in the patch.

Sometimes I find myself in Fast-Forward and you may not understand, but it horrifies me. And then I make myself slow down, slip back into Play. And Life is good again.

I choose Play because I choose Peace.



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