STOP ....in the name of love!

We can spend so much of our lives sleep walking through life...lost in day dreams, worrying about the future, wondering what we can do to 'save the planet' or improve the lot of mankind that it is no wonder that many of us bemoan the passing of time with a sigh saying 'Where have all the years gone?'
In truth our days pass by in a flash while all too often we are too busy with our thoughts to notice them!
We function much of the time on automatic pilot.Driving, eating, washing the dishes, hanging out the laundry, ironing
surfing the internet,washing, dressing.....all these habitual things we do without the need to even think about them, which leaves our minds free to think about the next thing we might do on our never ending list of things to get through before the end of the day/week/month/year.

This is how we miss so much of life and this is what led WH Davies to write his very famous poem 'Leisure' which I'm sure many of us can identify with.

LEISURE
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

If only we could get into the habit of saying, periodically to ourselves throughout the day 'STOP!' (Stop Tuning Out the Present moment)

STOP and breathe
STOP  and notice
STOP  and feel
STOP and appreciate
STOP and be thankful
STOP and look with seeing eyes
STOP and just BE for a moment.

What wonders might we notice if we were more present to what was actually happening now! What would we see? What would we feel? What would we notice that before we had simply taken for granted? Even stuff we would rather avoid seeing or thinking about can be experienced differently if we just stop and notice it rather than judge it or condemn it.

Einstein once had this to say about life.

'There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though  nothing is a miracle. The other as though everything is a       miracle.'
Perhaps if we just 'STOP' for a moment and slow down we may see miracles all around us whereas before we were too lost in our own thoughts to notice them.
I hope you all have a day filled with miracles!

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