Pulse of Life by Barry Hughes

As I approach this house each day on my walk, I have a sense of anticipation and alertness. This yard seems to always be full of bicycles. There is a basketball goal on the curb. There is an apparatus hanging in the tree where one can do pull ups and other torturous activities. There is a low net that moves around from place to place on the lawn. When this yard is alive with motion and activity I cross the street early and enjoy the show from a safe distance.

But I noticed that even on the days when I find the yard quiet, still and childless, it seems to be pulsing with life. Like a trap set with a too-tight spring or a bungee chord stretched to its limit, I sense that any moment could be the moment when all the energy will be released and the day will be on, full speed ahead!

These days have left quiet and still many of the spaces where our activities have usually taken place. Undriven cars. Quiet restaurants. Silent shopping centers. Dark church buildings. Still parks. Yet, like this neighbor’s yard, this stillness does not have to rob us of our energy. This stillness does not have to squelch our lives.

All around me I sense the pulse of life. I sense it when I see families thrown together and making the most of it by walking and playing and working side by side on projects long delayed. I sense it as I watch neighbors in lawn chairs leisurely chatting across the driveway in the cool evening breeze because their hectic schedules have been interrupted. The energy ripples across my own web of relationships as people love one another through calls and cards and acts of service. Though things are quieter, though things seem still by comparison to the past, the essentials have never changed. There is life to be lived. There are people to love. There is the joy of being loved.

There is coming a day that holds the moment when all the energy is released and our days are back on life full speed ahead. But we do not have to wait until then to be fully alive. Life, for the moment, just looks a little different.

Peace.