Hurry, hurry, hurry.

This word repeats in the back of my mind most days. Hurry when I wake up to speed off to my workout. Hurry home after my workout. Hurry to get ready so I can hurry off to work. Hurry on my drive so I can make it to work on time. Hurry to meet deadlines, hurry to lunch and/or Mass and back, hurry to meet friends after work, hurry home to escape the traffic and the noise. Hurry to bed so I can get up and do it all over again.

A standard day of mine involves a whole lot of hurry and not a lot of wait. What a shame. I must miss so many God Winks in my normal day to day.

Since Friday morning, my life has slowed way down. I’m on vacation, by myself, with no agenda whatsoever. It’s glorious. Each day is an adventure, a joy ride, once in a lifetime moments that will never unfold in this same exact way ever again.

Each moment of our lives is a once in a lifetime moment. For this reason, it’s imperative we live in the present tense of our life. We need to be where we are and be there fully.

I often find myself looking at the future, at my hopes and dreams and the life I desire to live. As I dream away I take myself right out of the present and overlook the special moments that are igniting right now.

Over and over again on this trip as I’ve been interacting with the people around me, I can hear God whisper to my heart, ‘be here and just listen.’ My long-time trained behavior makes me want to hurry along to the next thing,  even though I have no agenda, but God has been tugging at my heart to keep me in the moment.

It’s incredible what I would have missed thus far if I hadn’t listened.

When I arrived I was having breakfast at a cute little cafe. It was a beautiful morning, 75 degrees and sunny as it neared 11:00AM. I sat outside on the patio to have my lunch and journal a bit. The patio was wide open and I was the only one out there. A gentleman approached the table next to me and said, ‘Do you mind if I sit next to you in the shade?’ My spot and the one he was heading to were the only two shaded seats outside. I think God was winking.

Jerry was his name. He’s lived in Florida for 16 years by way of Atlanta, GA. He’s in real estate and capital L, capital O, capital V, capital E – LOVES living in Florida. Jerry poured joy from every inch of his being. He loves the weather, the sunshine, the beach, the air, his business, his life. Jerry is in love with life and I enjoyed talking to a man with such vigor for each day he’s able to breathe another breath of that salty ocean air. As I walked away, Jerry smiled and said, ‘It was nice to meet you, Jackie. Have a nice life!’

Later that afternoon I went for a walk on the beach and passed an elderly gentleman with a joyful countenance. He had on a bright yellow shirt and khaki shorts. His earbuds closed out the sounds around him, and he grinned from ear to ear. As I passed by him I said, ‘It sure is a beautiful day, isn’t it?’ I mean… it looked like this:

How could I resist such a cliche saying?

Pulling his earbuds from his ears he engaged in conversation with me. The older gentleman (and his wife) were vacationing as well. B.R. was his name and he couldn’t stop smiling. He told me how much they love the place they are staying in and pointed to it as he said, ‘It’s right on the beach!’ He told me I should consider staying there on my next trip and went on and on about how amazing it is.

B.R. recently had knee surgery and said he counted 62 steps from their rental home down to where the ocean kissed the sand. He said it with a smile though – you could tell he was proud of the accomplishment of his progress after surgery. Having had surgery a little over a year ago myself I shared in his victory of recovery. B.R. gushed with a deeply rooted love for life. A man of joy, indeed, and it certainly was infectious. We said our goodbyes and went our own ways, both a little happier than we were before, because God winked.

The next day I was going for a run along the local sidewalks and who did I spot, yellow shirt and all? It was B.R.! He greeted me with that same joyful smile and a bit of surprise. He proceeded like we were old friends by now and asked me how I’ve been. We chatted for a bit and then went our own ways once again. God winked twice through B.R. and he spread joy through him too… because B.R. allowed God to work through him.

Today was the chilliest weather I’ve ever experienced in Florida – mid 50’s. I went to Mass in the morning and then headed to a local coffee shop in a quaint little beach town to write and soak in the vibes of the community. I wrote for a few hours, then packed it up to head outside. It had warmed up quite a bit and there wasn’t a cloud in sight so I walked down to the beach to absorb the view and be still for a moment.

I stood on the boardwalk and called down to the guy working at the chair and umbrella stand to get his attention. I wanted to know what time the sun rises over the ocean at this time of the year. He told me how early I’d have to be up in order to catch it, and carried on with conversation. We shouted back and forth at each other for a bit, me on the boardwalk, him down in the sand, until I finally walked down to the beach and sat under an umbrella with him for awhile – his name was Chris.

Chris’s co-worker, Aubrey, joined us later and then Aubrey’s girlfriend and dog dropped by too. I sat there in conversation with three people who were perfect strangers just moments ago and we chatted – about their job and what it’s like to live in Florida during the different seasons. We chatted about sports, hometowns, movies, TV shows, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, Michigan, Nashville, Thanksgiving, families, sharks, dogs, and cats (among many other random topics I’m sure I can’t recall).

Did you know a pack of cats is called a clowder? Did you know a gaggle is a term for a flock of geese? Did you know a large number of fish swimming together is called a shoal? It’s true. We discovered these random facts as a group as we sat and chatted with no agenda, just a desire to have friendly conversation with people God had placed in our path for this once in a lifetime moment.

It wasn’t a grandiose moment, we weren’t trying to change the world, and we didn’t have any particular expectations. We were just present in the moment, enjoying the newfound company we were keeping. God was winking and we weren’t in a hurry.

At the end of the conversation the two guys (Chris and Aubrey) who worked on the beach taking orders for beach chairs and umbrellas from a high end clientele on one of the most expensive private beaches (yeah, I may have snuck onto the private beach by accident) in the area, told me how outrageous some of their clientele could be. They talked about the unrealistic demands some people had and they also talked about how rude some customers could be.

So odd, right? So odd to be on vacation and get so worked up about a reservation for a beach chair and umbrella and the exact placement of said beach chair and umbrella. It seems the angry response came from a desire to control the moment, to control the situation in hopes to guide the outcome. I think the angry customers Chris and Aubrey were referring to were missing out on the moment. They were missing out on the exact place God was trying to put them. Perhaps God’s placement for them would have given them an opportunity to start conversation with someone they needed to meet.

Perhaps God wanted them to meet a Jerry so they could feel and see how alive one could be when they were fully engaged in life.

Perhaps God wanted them to meet a B.R. so they could encounter a perfect stranger and feel like they were old friends.

Perhaps God wanted them to pull up a chair next to a Chris and an Aubrey so they could learn new random facts and see life through the eyes of someone else.

You see, God is always in charge and he can use any circumstance to redirect us and guide us where he wants us. He’s used this vacation to show me so many things and to slow me down so I could absorb the lessons He’s teaching me through the people around me. The world says, hurry, hurry, hurry, but God says:

You can’t hurry love
No, you just have to wait…

Oh wait, maybe that was Phil Collins… and the Supremes;-)

But in all seriousness, you really can’t hurry love. God is giving you love in every direction you turn, if only you’ll slow down to take it in.

Be still and know that I am God! [Psalm 46:11]