Still Moments

During the time I’d spent taking care of our daughter in New York as she faced chemo treatments for breast cancer,
my life back in Florida continued without me. When I arrived back home, I met mounting responsibilities screaming for my attention: weeks of piled mail on my desk, the computer with emails that needed answering in two inboxes.

I turned the television on for background noise and dove into the tasks at hand. Then at one point everything went quiet. I looked up. An image of a leaf with a gentle rain falling filled the TV screen. A countdown appeared in the corner and when it reached zero a soothing voice spoke. “Hope you enjoyed your thirty seconds of calm.”

When was the last time I’d experienced anything close to calm? The previous months had been a blur with trips to New York for my daughter and traveling to conferences with my job. My life was nonstop.

I got up from my desk and looked out the sliding glass doors at our backyard. A couple of deer grazed behind our neighbor’s house. How many times had I missed that? I took a few deep breaths before returning to my work with a reminder that even with the business of life, I still need moments to be still.