stillness.

I like the way things are now. I’m good and free.

My legs are currently stretched out across a lounge chair. I’m sitting out on an expansive balcony at a resort hidden in the hills surrounding Lake Travis. Austin offers a similar breezy, clear air, free people vibe as California. I love it here. The beauty of the rolling hills and the stillness of the water reassures my spirit.

There is something to be said about stillness.

It offers so much clarity. Yes, that’s it: clarity.

Clarity can be found in stillness. Often, when we desire answers, we actively seek them. We go out, we move around, we search, we dig, and we work to find them.

Get this, though:

In stillness, the answers find us. They reveal themselves and always in perfect timing.

I thought of something sitting here: In order to find something, we typically need to know what it looks like, right? For example, if I’m missing a shoe I carry out my search with its physical description in mind. In other words, I have to know what it looks like in order to find it. It is our practice to know what something looks like PRIOR to searching.

So then, (because of how our minds are set up) we search for answers in the same way; having already decided in our subconscious what they will look like or what they will be.

And in doing that do we not become less likely to recognize an answer that looks nothing like what we expected? Do we not ignore signs, because they don’t look like what we’re looking for?

There’s a song by John Mayer, in which he says, “You’ve been looking for a sign that’s never gonna look the way you want it.”

Our ideas and expectations are often a waste of time where the unknown is concerned. They are the fuel of our anxieties, and the hindrance of our prayers.

But in stillness, we let go of our ideas. We remove our desire to find and know all the answers. We surrender our control.

And then we slowly open up to possibilities. We truly open up to life the way we should.

And guess what happens? Answers and Clarity and Certainty show their pretty faces.

That’s where I find myself today. Open. Out of control in the best way. Lost in life. Lost in God’s will for me. And I trust this freedom. I feel safe. I believe that on my journey, signs will appear that I’m not necessarily even looking for. There will be signs that God placed in my path before I was even born into this world. They will have been placed there so that in time, once I got on the right path, I would see them in plain sight. They will clearly have never been hiding from me; only waiting for me to go in the right direction to see them.

Think about it. If you’re on the wrong highway all together, you’re never gonna see the sign for the exit that leads to your destination.

*FASTFORWARD

It’s been weeks since I began this post.

I’ve been sitting on it for several weeks now, because there’s so much more I want to say about stillness.

I think I’ll post this for now. It’s a good start. Rerouting is a good start. It may be time to hop off the path you’re on, get to a good resting spot and be still for a while, and then reroute with an open mind about signs and answers.

I’m telling you. Of all the lessons I’ve learned in the past several years, the one where I learned the importance of being still has been the most valuable and life changing.

When I made a conscious decision to be still last May I meant it, and I did it.

There’s never been a more peaceful time in my life.

Much more about stillness to come. Please keep me lifted as I’ll continue to do the same for you.

XO

-b