Standing outside a room until a manager was available to go through some paperwork, I leaned my back on the wall outside his office on this long impersonal corridor. In the badly sound-insulated environment I could hear a range of conversations happening in several rooms. I couldn’t make out any one conversation – just a soup of different noises.
My attention was drawn to the painting opposite me – a print of a watercolour of a vase of flowers. Studying this, the noises in my consciousness faded. I followed the brush strokes and wondered who had made them. The vase was a vivid blue – the flowers multi-coloured. Such beauty and a gradual warmth and detachment grew in me from what was going on around me.
There’s nothing wrong with activity, with our being busy. But it can mean we complain about the waste of time as we stand in the shop queue – or traffic jam. Perhaps it is a time to reflect. To rejoice in NOT being busy!
I reflected that life is, for many of us, full of noises – conversations, machines. Our daily activities of being busy and on the move. What a blessing this time was. Standing still. Nothing to do except listen and look. How calm I felt and I thanked God for this sliver of peace.
Anyway …“Hi John. Come in.”
And I was on the on the treadmill once again!
John Belfield, King’s Lynn Catholics