Are you racing to get to work every morning or pushing your children out the door for school before they can eat breakfast?  When was the last time you wrote a friendly letter to a family member or friend?  Have you walked over to your neighbors, looked them in the eye, and genuinely talked about your lives?  Has time been passing so quickly that you forget to say, “I love you,” to your spouse, parents, or children?  What was the last book you read?  Have you volunteered in your community?  When did “thank you” disappear from our collective vocabulary?

I’m guilty of all of these things, and I wish I had been more aware of them at the precise moment they were happening.  We cannot stop time from moving on with more speed and sophistication than ever before, but we can become more aware of the simple things that make our lives wonderful.  It doesn’t take much more effort to use moderate speed to get to places, actually writing a letter to family or friends instead of shooting off an e-mail, personally talking with neighbors instead of using our cellphones, reading a book beside a roaring fire and having a glass of wine, saying “I love you” to all we love, putting “thank you” back into our vocabularies instead of the vile language that seems to permeate our society, and doing random acts of kindness instead of being an “I’m the only person who matters” type.

I remember a time, not so long ago in the early morning hours, waking up to see my husband sitting in his chair that he made himself, sipping a cup of coffee and diligently staring at his laptop as e-mail after e-mail ran by.  I can just as well see him sipping coffee by a roaring fire outside with snow on the ground, his musket ready by his side, our golden lab resting by his feet, and a coon-skinned hat on his head.  No animals are moving in the forest around our cabin because they know he is our sentry, keeping all of us safe from a cold and mean the world.

I’ll perch my arms up for a moment and say, “I love you, honey.  Can you give me five more minutes?”  He’ll reply, “I’ll do better than that.  I’ll give you always and forever.”  And if in that fleeting moment he happens to see me roll over to go back to sleep, he will move from his chair to place a blanket over me and kiss my forehead.  In the warmth of that love, life can’t get any better than that.

It doesn’t matter how fast our world is changing, or even how many times we long for simpler things.  What matters is that we deeply care about those we love and the awesome world that God has created for us.  We yearn for both; we all need the greatest gift of all: God’s love.  Are you willing to stop what you are doing to say, “Thank you, Lord, for everything you have given me and this beautiful world?”  Take the time to slow down; you’ll enjoy the moment more.

Anna Hartt