Be

“Be” is one of those words when standing alone just seems awkward, as though it must be misspelled. It seems to need words to either precede or follow it in order for it to become normal. Let it be. Be careful! Or, that it is an incomplete word: Be – Be what? Behave? Beware? Before? Beehive? Spit it out!

It serves as a good analogy though for what we often feel about what it means to simply be. It’s not enough. There needs to be more. It’s incomplete. It’s not important enough to not be accompanied by something else to make the task more complicated. We’re all too busy to make time to just be. Even when we relax, it’s often while watching TV, listening to music, talking a walk, reading a book, drinking coffee, having an adult beverage, doing a Sudoku, or walking the dog. We have learned to reject the act of being because we are too wrapped up in appearances and how we are perceived. Who has time to just sit there and exist? It’s too simple a task, therefore, it cannot be important.

However, this perception is fear based. For it is far more complicated than we think to take a moment to just be. To turn off our thoughts and just exist in the moment. As Eckhart Tolle suggests, thoughts are the most addictive things we humans know. Try going ten seconds without a fix of thought. We avoid being because it’s too hard; not because it’s too easy. That’s the lie we tell ourselves to stay in the comfort of the busy trap. We fear what we don’t know, and what we don’t know is how to unapologetically give ourselves time to just be. To appreciate stillness so that we may have more appreciation and perspective about the chaos that surrounds us. We always have the choice to go there, and for most of us, it won’t be a long stay. It will be seconds at a time.

We can all learn to steal a few moments; simply pause to steal the breath of day. It’s an innocent theft.