Sometimes you feel that your Life has a Life of its own, that your Life is a runaway like the Little Gingerbread Boy in the folk tale where a little old woman baked gingerbread men. Gingerbread was her husband's favorite food. One day, a newly- baked gingerbread boy, born with a Sense of Self, hopped out of the oven and ran off. The old man and woman chased the Little Gingerbread Boy who called back over his shoulder:
"Run, run as fast as you can.
You can't catch me.
I'm the gingerbread man."
Later, a cow and a horse and a chicken started chasing the Gingerbread Boy, and he called out over his shoulder:
"I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
And I can run away from you, I can!"
And so the story goes. And so, it may seem to you that you can't catch up with Life that is always hanging around the corner. To this day, and perhaps more and more, you haven’t caught up with the Little Gingerbread Boy. Life keeps whizzing along. You are still ready for a day off from life, a day where you are not chasing it, yet such a day never comes. You still wait for Life to slow down so you can catch up with it.
You wonder: "Where in Life is the pause that refreshes?"
Dear Children, how can it be that you need a day off from Life? This is your Life. Of course, it must be that you and your Life are close together. What does it mean that you feel Life must slow down so you can catch your breath? Life doesn't go anywhere without you. You are precious to Life. Do you mean that it is your awareness of life that can't draw a breath and get your hat on straight?
Can it be you who runs as fast as you can away from Life?
Do you see Life as, well, sort of, fly by night? Do you mean you are so caught up in drama, you don't have a minute to think about even what journey you are on? Often you may feel jolted by life, sort of like your main connection with Life is out of joint, that you are ambling around while Life is flying past you, as if Life is like some kind of electric alarm system going off. Out of breath, you may notice all you can do is to hang onto Life Itself as you barely clasp it.
"Is this then Life?" is a question posed for a composition or oratory in the past when Life gave time to be thought about.
You say to Me within yourself:
"How would I know what Life is? I could be the last to know -- I am holding on to dear Life with all I've got. How could I have a clue about what I'm doing? I'm giving all my might to trying to live a Life and come out unscathed. How would I have a chance to know who or what I am, dear God? More and more I feel that I may not even exist. I'm kind of a hanger-on, pretending I fit in, when I don’t even know what it is I am trying to fit into. Sometimes I feel I have been miscast, God. I don't even know how I got here let alone who I am. God, yes, it feels like I'm a trespasser in my own so-called Life."
Dear One, is this so bad? You have slowed down enough to ask yourself some questions. You have slowed down enough to know that you are crossing Unknown Seas.