This is #30 of 108 Ways to Livin’ the Moment. Let’s take back our lives one beautiful, funny, and delicious moment at a time.

#30 of 108:  Be Still…Please…Be Still

Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.
~David Foster Wallace

Being still does not mean don’t move. It means move in peace.
~ E’yen A. Gardner

I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time, I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
~ Wendell Berry

One of the great dangers of living in New York City is that at least once a day, you’re seriously close to colliding with a biker.

These bikers are usually deliverymen screaming through the streets of Manhattan trying to get a cold pizza to an angry customer.

As a pedestrian, you have to freeze and hold your ground.

Moving one direction or another, you significantly increase the chance of collision with the biker and that spells serious injury.

The same goes with river rafting in Class V rapids, as I did once with my brother in Alaska (see pic).

The river rafting guide told us, when it gets intense, dig your paddle into the rapids to get leverage and hold your ground.  If you cower in the boat, chances are you’ll get sucked into the raging, freezing water.

In our neurotic, over-caffeinated, hyper-stimulated world, we tend to react, pivot, move, run—anything but holding our ground.

The wisest of the wise (i.e. a sacred text like the Tao) will tell you:

The sage does not attempt anything very big, and thus achieves greatness

Whatever the challenge, insurmountable task, financial struggle, or emotional pain that is comin’ at ya today like a frantic bicycle deliveryman with his job on the line…

Hold your ground.

Be still.

A vibrant inner life is far more powerful than a busy outer one.

Editor: Lynn Hasselberger

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