Marking time...

I recently spent time with someone who is important to me as a friend. We laugh and share funny stories when we are together, and we also cover the important "stuff" as well.  You know -- the things that go below the surface. There are children and family concerns, challenges of growing older, the disappointments of not being able to "fix" things that come up in any of those areas. I am thinking that this experience and these feelings are things that many of us share.  

Anyway -- I sense that this friend is sort of marching in place -- marking time. I think this happens when you are still moving but feel like you are not going anywhere. It is simply when a person needs time to regroup, to sort out, and... perhaps to heal before reentering the fray of daily life at full strength - if that is even possible. Again I am thinking that this marching in place experience is something to which you may be able to relate. I know that I have been there once or twice myself.

I think that it is important to recognize this need to mark time in ourselves as well as in others. It is the classic case of being mindful. Sometimes you can see it in eyes - your own eyes as well as in others.  If you can see something in someone's eyes that makes you want to be especially kind,  to hug them or to reach out and touch their hand -- that may be it... they are marking time. Whatever they have been going through didn't kill them, but they need some time to regather strength, to heal and to be able to move forward. It is a time during which people need to be particularly kind to themselves...methinks.

Thinking about this whole idea makes me remember my Mom saying - more than once - something like, "You need be kind to others because you never know what they are going through, and because you know little or nothing of their past struggles. Sometimes pain lingers a bit."  My Mom was one smart lady to be sure. She was also kind. As I think back on it, I can see that she also had her own marking time periods.  She came through stronger.... Interesting.... Even in memories, she is still teaching me.  Nice....