Time Is a Wheel in Constant Motion

"Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along, tell me who wants to look back on the years and wonder where they've gone?" sung by Lee Ann Rimes. In today's world, we are never in one place for very long; we move a mile a minute, and try to stretch every minute of every day. When the end of the day finally comes, we physically and mentally crash; exhausted by our overbooked schedules, we try to get some sleep, then wake up and do it all over again. In the hustle and bustle of our day-to-day routine, many times we fail to take the time to pause, slow down, and reflect, even if it is only for a minute.

I believe in the power of the pause. Taking time to catch your breath, recoup, and then push forward can do a world of good. Meditations in any form, whether it is in prayer, in silent thought, sitting with a clear mind, etc, are all ways of not only releasing tension, but also ways to allow yourself to step back and look at the big picture.

In high school, many times I felt overwhelmed and stretched too thin between mountains of schoolwork, dancing fifteen hours a week, volunteering every Sunday, working, along with other activities, that all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. Time was escaping me when I needed it most, and lingered on when all I wanted was for that horrible day to end. My junior year of high school was academically and emotionally a challenging and stressful year. I was taking advanced placement classes, dancing sometimes more than I wanted, and beginning to seriously look into colleges. As the first few weeks of school passed by, I was finding myself more frequently in tears rather than with a smile on my face. I was stressed, stretched perhaps too far, and as a result, found myself getting too emotional, and at times, physically ill.

On the day of my calculus mid-term, I was a complete wreck. I had a long dance rehearsal the night before, and though I had been studying for a while in advance, I was stressing myself out, and worse, I was worrying about all the other things I had to get done that day. My teacher handed me the test packet, and after one look at the paper, I couldn't even add. I was psyching myself out before I even put pencil to paper; I made myself believe I was going to test terribly. I knew I needed to calm down, but the question was how? Everyone around me was furiously figuring out problems as I sat there without a notation on the page, and my thoughts so confused. Facts were darting in millions of directions, and was so rattled I couldn't even remember 2+2. I decided to sit back, close my eyes, clear my mind, take a few deep breaths, and try to release some tension. A few moments later, I felt more confident, at ease, and ready to take the test. I knew my formulas, remembered that 2+2 is equal to 4, and walked out of the test feeling convinced that I had done my personal best, thanks to the power of the pause.

Pausing to