This I Believe

I believe in stopping. Not just slowing down, or taking a break, I mean fully stopping. Every now and then, I think that everyone needs to take enough time for a full stop.


When we were little, my brother, sister, and I, we were loud. We were messy. We made noise. We moved fast. I might find my brother trekking muddy footprints across the house as he paraded around the dead bull-frog he had scraped off of the driveway. My sister would engage herself in her "masterpieces", flinging gallons of paint onto construction paper; ruining carpets and wallpaper in the process. Me, I was a mastermind of battle and works of construction, pulling apart whatever I can get my hands on in order to string up whatever fortress tickled my fancy. Whenever we all got out of control, my dad would march up to us with this big swinging gait that he had, like he owned the world. My father is a pretty big guy, and when he wanted our attention, he got it. So he'd march up to us, the whole room would shake, and usually, it'd pull us out of our own worlds enough to whip our heads in his direction. But every now and then, it wasn't enough and we'd go on parading, and painting, and creating a general ruckus. It was at times like these that my father would plant his feet on the ground, and bellow, "FULL STOP!"


And so, we stopped. And suddenly, my brother would realize that his prize was actually a crushed amphibian, and sister would realize that her hair was now painted green, and I'd realize that a colander didn't really function as a helmet. I learned this from my father; when you take just a moment, and fully stop, just freeze everything, you'll see everything around you in a whole new way.


Even now, far from construction paper and childhood, I can still hear my dad's voice in my head, telling me to "full stop" when I need a break. It might be during a fight, or when I'm sad, or simply acting loopy. I need to take a deep breath, and stop. Full Stop.


It's not always enough just to slow down enough to balance multitasking. It's about being able to freeze everything you're doing, and step back in order to look at the world. Whenever you bite into something really delicious, you know how you close your eyes to enjoy it more? That's your body's way of stopping everything else so you can focus better.


Everything today moves fast, people run blindly through their lives, but I believe in stopping. Fully stopping everything around us to really see what is around us. Take a deep breath. Full Stop.