New York City today is crisp and autumnal, without much sun but with a beautiful blue sky and a breeze that beckons Fall forward to show himself fully. People are wearing sweaters now and campus is littered with cups of Orens as opposed to the iced filled, whipped cream topped concoctions that were the norm but a few weeks back.
I awoke this morning to an array of emails and missed calls, and found myself rushing through the beautiful breeze, late to class and with a cloud filled mind. All through my courses today, concerns and questions congregated and churned about within my head, creating confusion and fear.

On my walk home up Broadway, I was motoring along, still turning thoughts over and over, and feeling disconnected from my physical self; as if I was mostly made up of thought, and simply going through the motions to get myself to where I physically needed to be. I had chosen to feature Gwen Stefani on my ipod for the day and her hectic, fast paced beat was thumping around in the background of my brain as I mentally jumped around from one concern to the next. My pace was rushed for no reason, and the faster I went the more I saw my surroundings as spinning me around, shaking me up, and throwing me off balance. I thundered along, dodging briefcases and construction workers, virtually flying past the window of Jay nails where forty something year old women watch the world go by whilst they sit beneath ultra violet nail polish driers.

Onward I charged approaching Grace Church and almost passing it by…that is until, from behind the entangled and intertwined issues that were cluttering up my mind, came a clear voice, telling me to turn around.
I ignored it.
That is until it spoke again, and I found myself, turned her around, and turned off the ipod.
I entered the church, still feeling like someone outside of my self. In place of my pink sneakers, were my favorite pair of pumps and they sounded disruptive and discordant, clacking towards my favorite pew amidst silence and prayer.

It never ceases to amaze me how that chapel can be so quiet and still when just out side the doors, beyond its walls, the whole city is spinning. Why is it so hard to sit and take peace? To slow down, or stop; seemingly simple acts, and ones that now, after years of living in the fast lane, I am learning how to do. Sitting today, in my pew, I took five minutes peace and in doing so, shaped the rest of my afternoon. The street that I walked out onto was the same that I had sought refuge from, but the way I looked at it had changed.