“Take a walk with a turtle. Behold the world in PAUSE.”

When we think about it….a pause is one of God’s greatest gifts to us . The great comedian, Jack Benny, once remarked:

“It’s not so much knowing when to speak, as when to pause.”

Jack Benny’s whole comedic stage performance was based on his famous pauses. It wasn’t so much  his comments, but his expression during the pauses that made the crowd roar with laughter.

The speakers that have made an impression on me, throughout my life, are ones who haven’t  tried to cram as many words into one talk and ‘beat the clock,’ as the ones who spoke simply, directly, and used perfectly-timed pauses for deep reflection. They gave the audience the gift of time and silence. A precious gift!

I began to notice pauses in literature when I first read Archibald Rutledge’s best-seller Down by the River. When he returned home again, to Hampton Plantation in the 1930’s, it was his relationship with the African-American sharecroppers still living there, descendants of former slaves, who taught him the power of a pause and a few words.

In one of his tales, he remembers going down the Santee River early one morning (around 3 a.m.) with Sam Singleton, the plantation’s best boatman. They were going to a place called “Tranquility” in a wild delta, hoping to arrive at dawn,  for a duck hunt.

Even with the stars shining brightly at first, a southern river can be quite a haunting thing. Then, when a strange dense fog settled in, around their dugout cypress canoe, a sense of wandering toward eternity engulfed them.

The sound of waves appeared to get louder and louder, along with the roar of the surf. By now attempts to reach either side of the shore were in vain.

The blinding mist had thrown them off course and both men sensed immediate danger. Archibald turned to Sam and reminded him to cling to the canoe when it was swamped, which he expected to happen any minute.

There was a long pause before he heard Sam respond in the darkness: “Never mind, Cap’n,’ the humble boatman told him, “It will be daybreak soon.”

It was sunrise, that morning, that came just in time to save them. They were hovering on the brink of the sea.

Years later, upon reflection of this dangerous adventure, Archibald understood that it was not sunrise alone that had saved them, but Sam’s reminding him that it was SURE to come, that restored his courage.

Archibald concludes the tale with:

“And even now, after all these years, whenever the shadows are deepest and most impenetrable, I seem to hear, out of the dim celestial past, the quiet voice of Sam Singleton saying to my doubting and besieged heart. Never mind, Cap’n; it will be daybreak soon.”

For a writer I think there should be a pause button with a timer on it that gives the typist five minutes to think about what they are going to say before typing it…to give oneself reflection time before continuing the observations of the day. All technological equipment should have a pause button….because if we humans talked & wrote less and paused more the world would be a kinder, gentler place.

So until tomorrow ” When things begin accelerating wildly out of control, sometimes patience is the only answer. Press Pause.( Douglas Rushkoff)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Anne didn’t have time to pause this past month…yet her drawings reflect her inner light and talent brilliantly. 30 days, 30 paintings! This month she said is 29 salads (*it’s leap year*) in 29 days….she said she has to get off those holiday pounds!

In the News: The shadow knows: Furry forecaster Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring  (And all his buddies did the same thing…no shadows yesterday. An Early Spring!)

West Virginia’s French Creek Freddie, Georgia’s Gen. Beauregard Lee, Ohio’s Buckeye Chuck, North Carolina’s Sir Wally Wally, Louisiana’s Cajun Groundhog, Alabama’s Smith Lake Jake and New York’s Staten Island Chuck and they all agreed with P. Phil!