Pause, Remember, this whole world is you!
Of course, when I wrote those lyrics into a song called, ‘Sitting in this Rainbow’ I was just recommending that well trodden way of letting go into the moment, reminding me and you yet again about the life that we keep forgetting we’re living and encouraging you and me to let go again of whatever we happen to be distracted and preoccupied with in this particular moment of time.
Like many of the very basic feel-good ‘Songs of Freedom’ that I write and sing, the simple – and many would say simplistic! - message of that song is to take a moment to appreciate again that you and I are simply alive and well and living in a wonderful and ever changing world that will always remains beyond our understanding. Where’s the harm in that?
Anyway, I don’t know about you but it’s certainly true for me that there comes a time when that message about remembering and pausing isn’t just a sort of ‘spiritual’ message pointing at a gateway to freedom and well-being, but, on occasion it also becomes very important for me to pause and take a break in my ordinary, everyday and practical life here in Poole.
When I start to hear the universe telling me loud and clear (like, ‘No! that’s not happening!) that it’s time to take a break and to stop pushing ahead with those oh-so-pressing-and-important projects that I’m working on, then it’s definitely time to give my busy and creative friends and my kind-hearted but over-worked contacts a break from the stream of requests and demands that I’ve been making on them, almost accidentally, while I was pushing ahead with my plans.
Everyone I know is busy! And the last thing a busy person needs is someone else asking them to do something else right now!
And the other side of that coin is that when the universe starts to say ‘No!’ and it gets very difficult for me to move forward with the project I happen to be working on, well, truth is, I’m probably pushing too hard and I need to take a break, I need to pause and remember that, ultimately, everything’s absolutely fine the way it is and the universe doesn’t need me to do anything special right now.
I’ve always liked the way my partner Harriet talks about (and practices!) ‘holding things lightly’ as a very healthy and wise way of living in this communal world. She’s a great believer in putting ideas out there and then holding them very lightly while we all see if and when the universe wants that particular thing to happen.
Myself, I love the concept of ‘Creating Space’. Having been a founder member of an artists and musicians group called ‘Creating Space’ in the early Eighties, all those years ago, when I landed back in England after travelling around India for three years, I love the peace and the sense of ‘creating space’ that arises when I remember to take my foot off some accelerator that is driving me too fast and with too much intensity along some road, or some specific project that I thought was urgent and important for my journey at the time.
Here’s to creating space in our busy lives!
Peace and love
