When I was a kid, all I wanted was a sparkly magic wand that would speed up my life

with magical hurry-hurry-quick dust and fast-forward juice

so I could grow up fantastically fast and become me.

Now, I wish on 20 million twinkling stars for a pause button

that would freeze the world’s frantic swirling pace for just one day.

And on this day, I would find a silence-soaked escape

from rushed footsteps and honking car horns and haughty, irritated glances in crowded cafes.

With one slow-motion sneeze, my racing thoughts would sit still

and my lengthiest to-do lists would pipe down, too.

Then, this whimsically wonderful pause button

would create a crater in the middle of my chest where I could process my feelings

and swim like a smiling fish in the pensive feathers of my sensitivity.

Then, I could breathe again.

Because I’ve been suffocating in pools of prickly emotion

that overflow daily from the spongy edges of my fickle heart.

Where the flying fuck is this pause button?

It’s so simple, it’s almost annoying

because it’s been hiding inside of me.

I can dive three feet within, press it whenever I please

and retreat to a sweet palace of padded silence.

So goodbye crazy beautiful world, for right now.

I desperately press pause and stretch out on lazy lounge chairs

embarking on a one-of-a-kind vacation in my heart’s Tahitian turquoise waters

to recharge my depleted battery and explore my soul’s nagging pleas.

I submerge myself in smooth, whipped-cream shhhs

and lap up every last luscious drop until I’m ready

to return to the world’s steady list of pounding demands.

But, for right now, just for right now

this unbroken, silky-soft paused moment

holds everything I need.

~

Author: Sarah Harvey

Editor: Evan Yerburgh

Photo: Flickr/Konstantin Stepanov