Finding Time To Reflect

It proves difficult for most of us, sown deeply into our lives, managing our relationships, busy doing the doing, to find the time to reflect—to redeem the peace that is eternally available. Indeed, we can even begin to entertain the belief that such a peace might be unattainable for us ever again.

So many of us are hemmed-in within our lives in this way.

Finding time to reflect is making time to do something that doesn’t, at this time, promise repayment, but inevitably will. Not only is there an enjoyable memoir journalled, perhaps, but the peace of fascination about life that runs away from us if we let it.

So, maybe, we come from a position estranged to peace but we seek a position home in peace. And we know finding time to reflect, and developing the habit, is vital to the restoration of our soul’s tranquillity.

What Might Help

Finding time to reflect is a practical exercise, but it will involve some tough decisions and the wisdom of self-discipline. Some of the following might feed our consideration:

1. How well do we know ourselves? Finding the time to reflect is no linear fact—like ‘find one hour per day’ to do it. As there are billions of different people on this planet, there are equally billions of unique ways of finding time to reflect. Some need set times; others, on the contrary, find the time to reflect in a solitary moment—neither is right nor wrong, but hopefully right for the individual in question.

2. We cannot be, to the people we love, a loving person if we are moody and disconsolate much of the time, due to haggard schedules and the serving of everyone else’s needs to the detriment of our own. No truly loving person neglects their self-care; it is not another’s responsibility to provide for our well-being—it’s ours. This must be our motivation: to ensure we serve out of rest—that portion of Sabbath rest we all need. We cannot love in the right heart and mind without feeling sufficiently rested.

3. Sometimes math doesn’t work. Ever done the sums regarding your time and always come up short? We will always come up short. It is better to consider the need to reflect, to find a moment’s space in the fashion of everyday life, as a big enough priority to be considered first, like sleep, exercise, and spiritual devotion. When we begin to place life-giving activities first, hope indwells our lives from the inside out; our impacts are more characteristically positive, more generous, more gracious, more loving. Suddenly we realise; we have found the time to reflect.

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Peace is an eternal constant, not a mirage. It stands there willingly to be held, but it requires a choice. Do we choose to step forward toward it? Taking the step, with courage and wisdom, amounts to blessing.

Peace is closer, today, if you want it.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

Graphic Credit: by Trifle.