Be Still

Learning that life is not all about doing, but being. A lap cat helps.

- Susan Blair

“Just BE,” my friend Joy said some 20 years ago, “in the silence.”

She sat in the silence every morning, often writing in her journal as inspiration visited her, with the intention of deepening her spirituality and creativity.

As my mentor, she exhorted me to develop this practice as well. She urged me to slow down. She reminded me that, “we are human beings, not human doings.”

I resisted — and not all that silently, either. “But I have so much to do!” I wailed to her. “I can’t waste time doing nothing.”

I had a full-time job in a federal human resources office, a part-time job teaching aerobics and other workout classes, an “occasional” job presenting professional training, a yard full of plantings (and weeds) that seemed to grow before my very eyes, and oh yes, the normal and usual household chores.

Convinced as I was that my value as a person and a wife lay in how much I accomplished in a day, and because my paycheck was considerably smaller than my husband’s, I felt I needed to earn my keep by doing. Always be doing, getting things done.