Just being

I have just spent a weekend, hiding away from the world in Cobnor, near Chichester.  Surrounded by constantly changing views of sparkling water and the red and white sails of passing boats, it was impossible not to sit and dream. And for two whole days thats what we did. We dreamt and imagined and let ourselves....just be.

View from the window, Cobnor

 And it made me realise how rarely in our hectically frenzied and daily chore-filled lives we let ourselves  find the the time and space to do that:  just to be. 
It's something we talk about a lot in the Nursery and Children's Centre, how to create quiet, calm spaces where children can sit and think and watch and wonder. And it's hard. In this world full of 30 second sound-bites and the instant gratification of mouse-click computer games, 3 and 4 year olds often find it difficult to sit still and just be. There is always too much to see and do and want. 
And that's how it starts. 
As we get older, our lives seem to get fuller and busier and more complicated. 
There never seems to be enough time to do all the things we mean to do, to finish all the things we start, to hold onto all the moments we should be holding onto, to dream all the dreams we should be dreaming.
But the time is there, we just have to claim it. 
We need to remember how important it is.
Remind ourselves what a difference it can make. 
Remember how to take time out and re-charge our batteries.

William Henry Davies said it best:

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

We were lucky this weekend to such a beautiful place with such a perfectly peaceful view, far enough away from city life and the monotony of daily routine, to make us believe that for just a few hours, we had stopped the world.

But peaceful places can be nearer home if you let them be.  I sometimes creep away to the shed at the end of our garden. I sit for a while, trying to write but mostly I stare out of the window and day-dream.

And sometimes, early in the morning, before anyone else is awake,  I curl up in our high-sided, comfortable, red armchair and wrap myself in thoughts and memories and possibilities.

And although the day is about to begin, and there are jobs to be done and packed lunches to make, for those few minutes, I just " am. "

 "Just being," is the stuff dreams are made of and the moments we live for.

I am,
you are, 
let's be.