Rhythm Part 1

Rhythm.  The music is playing and for some of us, our feet can’t help moving, trying to feel that pulsating beat.  It isn’t a nervous foot jiggle, as my husband demonstrates, you know the one where when sitting with toes only touching the floor the heels start bouncing….aka the Motor.  No that’s the one that sets the dishes sitting on the table jiving making everyone hyper until the death look captivates the jiggler or someone goes over and physically places pressure on their knees to lower the heels and make it stop!  I don’t know, maybe in the jiggler’s mind they are moving to some beat, just one unheard by anyone else!  No, rhythm, as I intend to portray is of a different cadence.  Whether it be to a waltz or a jive; somewhere in its pace is a regularity of tempo.  Rhythm can build in its pulse, but then once it reaches its crescendo, drops back to its pattern.

Are you aware that life too has a rhythm?  Do you know when yours is out of sync?  If truth be told, I am only now learning to pay attention to life’s rhythm.  Before I was too frantic in my life approach to even think about it.  I have often remarked about life’s busyness and its ill effects on us.  The point I never fully explained was this point about rhythm.  I am in NO way a dancer, I’m much too klutzy for that, but I do fancy myself to enjoy music and be able to keep time at least moderately well.  The thing with me though, is that I have to hear the music.

Well, life doesn’t always play its music so that we can hear it, either that or we’ve become deaf to wanting to listen to it.  And that is  until something happens in your life that makes you slow down and pay attention to it, which in turns makes you wonder why it took so long to do so.  The rhythm in life is as soothing as you allow it to be.  Here’s the thing though, too often we aren’t listening to “our” life song, instead we are listening to someone else’s, because their beat sounds somewhat more appealing than ours.

In the Bible, Jesus comes to visit Martha and Mary.  I’m a Martha.  I want to be prepared, house cleaned, food warmed, everything just so.  The problem with that is that when the guest of honor arrives (in this case Jesus), Martha continues to fuss over the tiniest of details completely missing out on the enjoyment of her guest.  Mary on the other hand, stops what she is doing and dotes on her guest.  Martha gets PO’d enough to even try to convince Jesus to tell Mary to get off her ever loving butt and get to making things right.  Two distinct people, two distinct different rhythms.  Yet Jesus tells Martha, Mary’s got it all right, she IS doing what is important.  Whoa.  In Martha’s mind, Mary was being a slacker.  In Jesus’ mind, Mary was anything but a slacker.  She was honoring her guest by being present in the moment with Him.

As I age, I am becoming increasingly aware of life as an agenda.  Unfortunately, that agenda seems to center on everyone else’s time frame.  Do this, be there, look here and most often the word that follow those is the word…..NOW.  My husband and I are not independently wealthy, so I don’t have the luxury of thumbing my nose at life and saying kiss my grits.  I (we) do, to a certain extent, have to be responsible adults – only if we want to continue to enjoy having a roof over our heads and food on the table.  No, I’m talking about what comes after responsibilities have been met.  How do we allow ourselves to enjoy our own timely progressions?

Stay tuned….

Looking up!~

Barb