Ponderings

Why is it that when we are too busy to find a spare moment, all we crave is the "white space" of a peaceful time-out, a day off, a few hours of rest and relaxation? And why is it that when we finally happen upon some unstructured, unscheduled time the worries and the "shoulds" immediately prey upon the wide open space of the very quietness our souls needs?

The other day I was watching some ants working on their little ant hills. If you've ever seen an ant farm, you know that beneath that little pile of dirt is a terribly complex structure the ants call home. The ants are famous for working together as a team. What struck me is that they perform these sophisticated tasks together, these tasks that require much cooperation. And they do it without a spoken language. As a writer and a therapist, I'm quite fond of the whole communcation thing. But this week I couldn't help being a little jealous of the ants who can accomplish quite a bit and not have to bother with words at all.

Today I was out & about observing that summer is really getting underway. You can tell this is true in the city because people roll down their windows and turn up their radios, treating the rest of us to their music. The trouble is, I don't want to hear your music. I like my music. My music doesn't objectify women or threaten violence to others. If I can hear your music above my music, generally I'm not very happy. But today the car that pulled up to the stoplight was playing Something Beautiful by the Newsboys. Not a song you typically hear on the streets of Chicago. And it was fitting for my mood today. I wish most people would turn their music down. The guy with the Newsboys can keep his up.
If you want to hear the song it's in the playlist on my sidebar to the left. Just make sure you are listening to Something Beautiful by the Newsboys, not by Jars of Clay. That's a totally different song.