Pause

Selah. While no one knows for sure why this word appears throughout Psalms, it’s commonly thought to be a musical term (the Psalms are a bunch of songs after all), and many scholars believe it simply means a pause or rest in the music.

There is no music in a rest that I know of, but there’s the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody. -John Ruskin

In order for our life’s music to sound good, we have to pause. We have to take a breath. We have to stop and look around, even just for a few minutes.

Have you ever listened to The Flight of the Bumblebee? It doesn’t really have any rests in it. It’s one constant flurry of movement and activity. Just listening to it makes my heart rate increase.

There is a time and a place for bursts of frenzied activity, but without pauses and rests, we quickly become burnt out.

How can you build a habit of pauses into your life? Here are some examples from my own life…

• I try to sit and simply read for 15 minutes to 1 hour each afternoon
• My family stays off screens on Sundays, instead taking naps or playing games or going for a walk
• My goal is to take one weekend a year away from the rush of everyday life, but so far it hasn’t happened very often 🙂

We need to pause, take a breath, before jumping back in to the music. How can you plan ahead to pause today or sometime this week?

 

31Days of Five Minute Free Writes is a participation in Write31Days, which takes place every October. See the rest of my craft-practicing posts linked up here. 

 

*Photo by Marius Masalar on Unsplash