Nothing stays the same—this is what I’ve discovered in growing up. And of course I know this, but I continually fight it. I want to understand. I want to make sense of what is happening around me. I want to know where I’m headed and see beyond the present. I want to go and go and go and rush and take everything in, taste it, spin it around in my mind until I get dizzy.⠀
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But something I’m learning is how to slow down.⠀
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Something I’m learning is how to be still.⠀
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I’m learning to quiet the rushing thoughts in my head. I’m learning to close my eyes and breathe deeply, smell the earth, the sky.⠀
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I’m learning to let life happen—to me and around me—and smile, even through the storm. I’m learning that you cannot always have the answers.⠀
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I’m learning that you will only exhaust yourself trying to run when you’re only meant to walk, trying to make people love you when they’re meant to be set free.⠀
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I’m learning to be still.⠀
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I’m learning to close my eyes and slow down time, make a moment stay, instead of letting it so quickly fade into a memory. ⠀
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I’m learning to relish in the present, to hold onto it for as long as I can and quit looking ahead to the next adventure, next thing, next item on my list.⠀
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I’m learning that stillness doesn’t mean a perfect life, but it does give me peace. And I’m learning that when I stop running wild, stop letting myself be pulled in three different directions, stop thinking I have to know everything—I am in-tune with the people around me, stronger in my faith, and more focused on the people and things that really matter.⠀
I am learning that life is even more beautiful when I stop trying to have the answers, when I stop trying to write my own path, when I stop trying to continually be something, be somewhere, and instead just be.