Rocking With Me

There was once an elderly, despondent woman in a nursing home. She wouldn't speak to anyone or request anything. She merely existed - rocking in her creaky old rocking chair.

The woman didn't have many visitors. But every couple mornings, a concerned and wise young nurse would go into her room. She didn't try to speak or ask questions of the old lady. She simply pulled up another rocking chair beside the woman and rocked with her.

A couple of months later, the old woman finally spoke.

'Thank you,' she said. 'Thank you for rocking with me.'" (Author Unknown)

Sometimes being with people is all that is really needed. We are so fraught and concerned with all the hectic business of our lives that we neglect the simple things of simply being present.

So much stuff competes for our attention. The search for missing Kyron, the Gulf Oil Spill, the economy, who hates what and whom...it's media and information overload. It's not just all the information, but the energy it takes to sort through all the information, deciding what to read or look at next.

In the midst of that sometimes I forget to call my Mom just to say "Hi." I forget to go out on the back deck where there are some pretty flowers and enjoy them. I forget to just take a break from it all to "be".

Long ago I learned that my "being" wasn't contingent on my "doing". That without lifting a finger I still was. No about of items ticked off my "to do" list gave me greater meaning and purpose. So why the frantic pace to get things done? To accomplish and achieve? Why the stress?

Some of it I owe to the dynamic of being driven rather than called I'll talk more about at at another time, but the basics are that when we are "called" to do something, it really isn't work - we are being in tune with the River's current, so there's no real energy drain. The River is doing the work - and all we're responsible for is being present and going with the flow.

Being driven means that something in our map of reality is telling us that we "ought" to do this, or do that. There are expectations (ours or those of others)and the constant pressure to feel like we're meeting those expectations so as not to let anyone down.

I want to practice being more conscious of which dynamic I'm working with at any given moment. I want to be present to the moment, sit with it - rocking gently back and forth - listening to the squeaks of the floor, or the chair - and know that sometimes, just that being present is all it takes to create a really loving space for myself and possibly others. Just to tune in.

At the end of it all, if one friend says, "Thank you for rocking with me." It will have been time well spent.