Mind the Gap
Ride the London Underground and you'll hear it at nearly every stop. Mind the gap. A gentle reminder to watch the space between the train and the platform.
There's another gap worth minding.
Something comes at us. A remark, a headline, a bill, a failure. And we react. Annoyance, worry, hurt. It happens so fast it feels like one motion.
But it isn't. As Viktor Frankl purportedly observed, there's a sacred space between stimulus and response.
Most of us, if we find that space at all, use it to pick a better response. Count to ten. Take a breath. Say the kinder thing. All good. But that's still the me, managing.
What if the gap isn't a position to choose from, but a place to rest?
A Course in Miracles calls it the holy instant. A moment of stillness ... an awareness of being, where nothing is coming at us and nothing needs answering. No past to defend. No future to secure. Ram Dass also said it in three words: be here now.
On the Underground, the gap is the last place you'd want to stand. Here, it's the only place to be. Mind the gap.