Yesterday afternoon was wonderful. The weather was beautiful, the Sun was out, and the family was all occupied. So, after I got home from worship and wound-down from the morning, I took a book and went out to the backyard swing to read. I read about a chapter or so, but kept nodding off ¹. After one particular accidental cat nap I put the book down and did something truly amazing.

I sat.

Really, that’s all I did. I sat and did nothing except take in the beauty all around me ². I noticed how small the leaves on the oak tree behind our garage were. I noticed the plains flying over head. I saw a variety of birds coming through the yard. I listened to our neighbor’s son play Jimmy Hendrix on his guitar ³.

For close to an hour I just sat and enjoyed the world. When I thought of the “productive” things I could be doing, those thoughts were immediately suppressed. I thought of possible blog entries, and stopped writing them in my head. I considered where I could go for a photo-walk and took pictures with my memory instead. I considered the emails I could write or the phone calls I could make, and I never got them done.

I just sat, and life became quiet, the world became huge and lovely, and I was reminded of how amazing God is ⁴. None of the other things I could have been doing were bad. In fact, several of them were spiritual disciplines in their own right. Right then, however, what was needed was sitting.

It was marvelous.