Clarity

In today’s busy world, it’s not unusual to find our thoughts racing faster than the speed of life. When we feel stuck in a rut or unmotivated, it sometimes feels like the answer is to keep pushing ourselves. What if the thing we really needed to do more often was to pause?
I want you to imagine this: You’re driving down the road when, suddenly, a car comes speeding around the corner and crashes into you. A man gets out and approaches you. He looks disoriented and distracted.
“Let’s just sort this out quickly. I’ve had a lot of accidents already and I need to get my wife to the hospital!” he says.
Sensing his distress, you exchange information so he can continue on his way, but then you notice his car. It’s a little dented, but the bumps it took along the way didn’t damage the most important parts. It can take him anywhere he needs to go. Then you look at his windscreen and notice that it’s covered in mud from somewhere he got stuck along the way.
What should he do?
Should he go back and try to clear the obstacles that are behind him?
Should he try to anticipate the obstacles that might arise and make the perfect plan to avoid them before he moves on?
Should he get back in his car, drive faster and just do it!?
Or should he pause and clear the windscreen, so that he can catch the vision of where he’s going?
Most of you would agree that he should clear his windscreen.
From time to time, we can get caught up going through life like this. We can get stuck thinking about the past and what we could have done differently.
We can get stuck thinking about the future, afraid to move until we have the perfect plan to avoid failure.
We can speed up our busy thinking in the present until we burnout from exhaustion, stress or anxiety… However, there is always an alternative.
I once heard it said that clarity is not about knowing exactly what to do; it is simply freedom from obstruction. A clear signal is free from static. Clear water is free from particles. Clarity is our natural state, and it happens when we allow the noise to settle instead of stirring it up.
We can always pause, breathe and be still as the windscreen of our mind clears and we catch the vision and guidance of higher wisdom. Whether you find it in prayer, meditation or even long walks, some of the most inspired ideas come “out of the blue.” They always will when we become still and allow clarity to return.