On pressing pause

The Muse Letter No. 126

I rarely take a pause. I rarely say I need a minute or Can I get back to you later? I answer emails and messages straight away and if I can’t because I don’t have the answer yet or the decision relies on someone else or I am actually busy, I will feel stressed and urged, and pressured until I finally do. I react, react, react, ticking of tasks, the concept of taking a moment, of needing a moment, of allowing myself some time before I choose feels frightening.

Everything of importance has to be done straight away, otherwise, it might not happen at all, is my constant fear, the loudest voice in my head.

As the youngest of four siblings, I guess what I picked up is if you don’t call dibs someone else will get it or in fact already has taken it because you were too late. If you don’t say immediately I want to eat that, it will be gone.

If you don’t answer quickly, if you indulge yourself, you’ll end up with nothing.

The difference between reaction and response is time. Reaction is what…