Last week I led a retreat in Yakima, WA. I’d had a rather hectic week prior to the retreat – a few too many things on my plate – just like everyone else I know.

While in Yakima, I stayed in the beautiful home of my friend Erwina. She has created a comfortable and welcoming place where you want to sit down, take off your shoes, and look around. At the back of her house is what I’d call a ‘delicious garden’ filled with flowers, tomato and pepper plants, and aromatic herbs that invite you to stop and soak it all in, to pause and to breathe.

When Erwina left the house to run some errands, I decided it was a good time for me to do some work. I found myself drawn to the garden where there was a nice patch of sun hitting the glider – that lovely invention that feels something like a porch swing. (Did your grandmother also have one of those?) So, I took my work outside with good intentions. However, as I was getting organized, Erwina’s cat Biscuit decided to change the picture. He jumped onto my lap, looked at me with his lazy, half-closed eyes, and challenged me to try to work. ‘Okay, Biscuit,’ I said, ‘I’ll pet you for awhile, but then off you go so I can get something done.’

I confess I love cats, so it was refreshing and rejuvenating to sit in the warm sun, smelling the rosemary and basil, and listening to Biscuit purring on my lap like a gentle motor boat. To make it even more perfect, the sky was blue, puffy white clouds were floating by, and tiny Goldfinch birds were enjoying their lunch on the nearby birdfeeder.

I started thinking about how essential it is for us to stop, to look, smell, hear, and feel beauty around us in God’s creation. It’s far too easy to experience the busy and ugly side of life, and when we’re too busy, we tend to find fault with people, things, even life itself. I’m aware that we don’t really appreciate our precious life until we’ve had a close encounter with death. Yes, I know about that too.

As Biscuit and I sat together, I found my breathing slowing down, my must-do work moving off the front burner of my mind. I began to breathe with the rhythm of Biscuit’s purring. It was an awesome moment – in fact it was 30-some awesome God-moments as Biscuit and I paused and purred together.

Thank you, God, for creating a world full of beauty, a world that includes birds, herbs, sunshine, flowers, and purring cats. Teach us to pay attention, to observe, to experience, and protect your amazingly beautiful universe. And help us to look for beauty in all peoples, all things, and in ourselves too. Amen.

Joy Carol

www.joycarol.com