Pause!

There are moments in life when we want everything to stop, except the sun shining above in the sky as we experience some moments of silence, peace, pause, tranquility and reflection. A dance without the beats. A song without melody. Pause, just like yoga without the movement, without any music either. Breathe in, breathe out. Create a quiet aura around you that brings you inner peace and that sought after joy you truly, deeply need. We all need the joy that is within those moments of pause, let your mind not think, let your heart pump, let your thoughts pause, just be! Be in the moment. Be in peace. Be inside the joy that brings that moment of pause. Stop on your tracks. Don't do anything. Relax and rejoice. Find the serenity you truly deserve. Be clear and quiet in your mind. Don't be in your head. Don't think about anything. Heck, don't overthink things like you normally do. Be ready to stop. Stop and do something for you. In the moment. In that very moment. Smell the flowers, even those small ones, the not-so-pretty ones, the ones with whom Mother Nature wasn't as kind or they didn't grow as beautiful and blooming as the rest! 

Life is too short to not have breaks, to not enjoy it, to not pause when you need to. Life is too short to walk, run, go full speed ahead and be on the move constantly. And if you keep moving all the time, your batteries will die too soon, you will overwhelm and over-exhaust yourself. Remember you can't pour from an empty cup. Life is too short to miss the small moments we need to enjoy the most. Like reading a book as we sip a cappuccino, cozily laying with a blanket in our favorite corner or that couch we love so much. Like letting the children mess up the home we cleaned for hours in a row just earlier, yes even big messes, create loud noises and a little bit of chaos - they are only little once and you will miss these moments one day. Like enjoying that hug or kiss your child gives you when you don't expect it. Like staring at a painting or a piece of art and trying to deeply think what the author thought when he created it. Like taking a moment, two, three, many moments to enjoy a meal leisurely, in peace, without rushing, to enjoy your hot and fresh coffee without interruption and without having to put the cup down a dozen times, heating it and re-heating it in the microwave. Like taking a moment, better yet an entire morning or afternoon to put your phone down, not constantly checking your e-mails, your Instagram stories, all the infinity sales and ads from the stores, the text messages, the apps that are suffocating your phone, anything and everything. Miss those phone calls, have unread text messages, shut off your DMs, don't loose yourself through Tik Tok videos or go down the rabbit hole of the never-ending stories that influencers post on Instagram every single day. Breathe!

Just breathe! And live life through the pause you deserve, because we all need little breaks sometimes. Even those who seem to have their shit together most of the time. Life is what you make it, full of ups and downs, topsy-turvy, unkind and cruel at times. Life is what happens when you make other plans. Ain't that the truth?! Especially this year. If Covid-19 taught us something, at least it taught us that. It was the year to take it easy, to stop, to pause and to unwind more so than any of the other years. After all this year stopped us in our tracks, it put us on pause, and deep down in some ways I am glad it did. We needed it. Hell how much we needed it! We were running like chickens with their heads cut off. We were tired, exhausted, extremely rushed, always doing something, always busy and on the go. This year may have made physical contact with people a lot harder and in some cases impossible and nonexistent. But as we missed hugs, kisses and physical touch from loved ones, as we missed what a hand-shake felt like, we gained so much more. We learned to smile with our eyes, we learned to write longer and kinder e-mails, we learnt to become kinder, more accepting, more open-minded, more patient and we paused. We paused to listen, to learn, to let go, to love and to live life just as it was brought to us.

We learnt to love deeper and harder and appreciate love from the depth of our souls because it truly is incredible and not only the romantic kind of love. Love for our children and our parents, our siblings and our aunts+uncles, our grandparents and all the elderly. Love for strangers and humanity in general, love and respect for our children's teachers, their nurses, our doctors, our police force, our scientists, our pharmacists, our grocery store clerks, our fast food workers, our door-dashers and Uber drivers. Love, respect, kindness, care, compassion, humanity, humility and pause. Pause, so much needed pause. Even Mother Nature agreed. Our planet Earth got cleaner. The world paused this year, it paused hard, it paused deep, it paused a lot. And we paused too. So did over a quarter million hearts, they stopped beating... But you know what, we will heal again. We will survive! We will rise again like the phoenix and we will pause no more! So pause now while you can (still)... and be mindful, thoughtful and hopeful of what's to come!

P.S. I was originally going to post today and run my usual Thursday Moda linkup a day early, but I decided to "follow my own advice" and pause. So I will take a break from here the blog and from Instagram until next Monday on November 30th.  I will be back Monday on November 30th with a fun themed style post. Be there. =)

HAPPY  THANKSGIVING  2020!!