Focus

Focus

The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

FLIPPING THROUGH THE MAIL as I slowly walked back from the mailbox, I focused on the corner of Aunt Claire’s beautiful stationery envelope barely peeking between the bills and random junk mail.

Tugging it out, I smiled at her familiar penmanship and the extra stickers she used as decoration. I’ll set this one aside to savor over my cup of tea, when I can give it my full attention, I thought as I sorted through the rest, noting nothing else of joyful interest.

Aunt Claire tells the best stories. The only girl of five siblings and thirteen years older than my dad, she slips me unknown tidbits that are funny and heartwarming about grandparents I can barely remember, connecting me to my roots in new ways.

And as I write her back on my own beautiful stationery, hunted down when pages covertly ripped from Jon’s spiral-bound notebooks no longer would do, I find myself slowing down, savoring, focusing on her, on the moment, on our friendship that has been steadily growing as we do this pen pal thing.

Social media and texting and emails are all lovely for staying in touch, but there is nothing quite like holding the same paper someone you love held, pausing to squint over a letter or a word to bring the present moment into focus as chaos fades.

I love these moments—the writing and reading of letters, the physically tangible connection when too many miles separate us. I appreciate the slowing down, the focus on this relationship, this time and place instead of living constantly in the future, anticipating the next task, the next event, the next everything. And I find myself wondering why I allow my focus to be constantly pulled forward into the future rather than pausing to simply be in this moment, present.

Lord, help us to focus on the people, places, and things in this present moment. May we be women who focus as much on the now as we do on the future. Amen.

-Julie

One Good Step: Who needs your attention right now? Practice focusing on the present moment rather than future events today.