As we stood in front of the rubber glove display in the supermarket of a sleepy town on the coast for nearly five minutes contemplating the various qualities of all the different types of rubber gloves, we knew we had achieved what we had wanted from this holiday - the real "chill" factor!
We laughed as we thought about this behaviour, which would have been unimaginable in the normal rush of our lives, struggling to choose between "silver-lined" and "cotton-lined" rubber gloves: two people who are more used to making quick decisions about large financial budgets or that affect a person's ability to live.
Yet this simple act of really paying attention to the task of the moment is akin to "mindfulness", a technique which is growing in popularity amongst mental health practitioners for treatment of a range of mental health issues.
Mindfulness requires paying attention to the thoughts and awareness of the present moment, without any elaborating or judging of the experience (as soon as we laughed at ourselves, we failed in a "mindfulness" sense).
Recent studies are demonstrating the encouraging results of mindfulness interventions for a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression and chronic illnesses such as cancer.
As I reflect on our time away, I am aware that this laid back holiday offered many such moments, as we sat in the sunshine listening to the birds singing, savouring the crunch of morning toast and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, or walking along the beach noticing the damp sea air on our clothes, the cool sand squeezing between our toes as we walked. Our quiet times were refreshed and deepened in this slower way of dealing with life.
But what has this got to do with relationships; developing, building and maintaining relationships with God, with those who are close to us, or even with our inmost selves?
On our last evening, we spent a few minutes talking about what we had enjoyed about our time away and how we would attempt to maintain some of that benefit as we returned to our normal busy lives. We realised that fully living and experiencing the shared incidences had brought us into a closer intimacy, which in turn encouraged being more attuned to each other and responding more empathically and intuitively to the other, resulting in each of us feeling more appreciated and loved.
Making space in life for the closer contemplation of the moment, allowing oneself to fully experience the richness of the event without censure, brings us into contact with the object of our contemplations.
Is this what the writers of the Psalms are describing in times of distress, the meditations on God which enable them to move from despair to hope?. "When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. For You have been my help, And in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy". Ps 63:6,7 NASB.
