Peaceful Play…Just Because

I sometimes forget how nice it is to just sit in nature, without an agenda or schedule and take it all in. God’s wonder underneath your feet…resting…unmoved by a “to do” list or a timeframe or anything really. Today, I sat just outside my front door, in our butterfly garden and relaxed. Not too many cars heading in and out of the neighborhood, no airplanes zooming overhead. Just me and the Sabra, our Lab. I rarely do this and when I have the opportunity, this type of event would not typically pop into my mind to do.

I looked over at Sabra and I understood a little bit more why she likes to come outside. It’s peaceful. She just sits in the grass, sometimes gnawing on a stick or two or three. But today, after gawking and trying to rundown the exotic looking bird we discovered in the road, she just laid down, look around and entered into a state of just “being”… just because.

I need to do this more often. This “being” just because.

The message at church this past Sunday was about taking time out to enjoy the world around us. We are always rushing and going and hurrying, often without a true destination in mind, or at least one not really worth all of the energy and stress to get us there. The saying goes, “live like today was your last day”. While there is much truth to this: We don’t want to leave this life without being able to say that we accomplished all that we set out to do. But how many times is our rush, rush, gotta go mentality hindering us from kicking our feet up on a lawn chair in the back yard with a good book and a nice cup of chai tea? How many times are we missing the never-ending gurgling sound of the creek or the lap-lap-lapping of the waves upon the shore of an unknown lake where a family of ducks have come to play and greet you? We can miss those “small” things that can mean so much… things that can tickle and warm your heart in a place you’d forgotten was there.

I am behind my personal schedule for today. I took time out to take a picture of our flowers and uncovered a picture of myself that I’d like to see more often… a playful peace, inviting me to wander a little bit off schedule a little more often.