Interruptions

the REST of the week #111

It’s the rest of the week. Shall we celebrate interruptions?

Leaves resting atop a party tent in Lexington, SC.

Imagine you are cruising through a well planned day with everything going according to schedule—until you notice a missed call on your phone.

You know it is important.

Setting your schedule aside, you tap the screen to return the call—ignoring anxious feelings about productivity and such.

Off and on throughout the phone call, those feelings rise to the surface and you notice them, name them, and let them go—remembering that this relationship is a priority and that this conversation is exactly what you are meant to be doing at this moment.

All is well—except that your next appointment is rapidly approaching. Instinctively, you begin shortening your sentences, asking fewer questions, and talking more quickly. Maybe you even fidget a bit as you check the time—again.

But then you notice what’s happening inside and relax. You choose rest. You pay attention and enjoy the moment—and say good-bye in time to make it to your next appointment without rushing.

There are all kinds of interruptions—some pleasurable and some frustrating Either way, we rarely have the luxury of planning for them, which, I suppose, makes for a good opportunity to choose rest.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’ or one’s ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls interruptions are are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day…”

May your interruptions be sweet.

Alicia