A friend of mine was joking with me about my love of commas, I do like using them a lot. Often it’s unnecessary, but the reason I like them so much is they force a small pause, and that reminds me to stop and take a breath, in life as well as on the page. I tend to run on high octane without enough downtime and hardly ever a break in the action, and I know I’m not alone in this. Right now I feel like, the more the better when it comes to thoughtful reflection, slowing down, and noticing what it is we are doing.

Life happens fast, so fast in fact, we can miss it, or not realize what’s really going on. We say hello, good-bye, how are you without even waiting for a reply. Much of our lives are lived in these routine reflexes if we don’t stop and regroup every now and again. Enter, the comma, a gentle reminder for us to take a small break from the endless to-dos. And who doesn’t need to take a breath every now and again during the day? We always seem to be racing to cram as much as humanly possible into every moment. Without the comma life would be a ceaseless whirlwind, we become so preoccupied with the millions of details of daily living we forget to enter fully into life. The comma offers us a little pause and some much needed breathing space in between all the incessant doing. And trust me, we could all use more of those kinds of commas in our daily lives.

Commas bring with them the gift of subtle spaciousness. They remind us to slow down and take in our surroundings and to sink into the moment and luxuriate in what we are doing before we are onto what’s next. They are the be here now of grammatical notations and show us that taking a small respite doesn’t mean we aren’t capable, don’t have enough energy, or aren’t trying hard enough. We all do enough and it is okay to take a break, a breather, a rest.

Commas also offer us a chance to reset and reevaluate. Incorporating physical commas in our busy lives allows for many momentary reflections and rethinking of things. How do we live the comma? Lay in bed an extra ten minutes or see the sun rise, have another cup of tea, watch the leaves falling until you feel you’ve really seen them. Commas show us how to live life as a joyful experience instead of as a to-do list.

The commas in life come when we actually stay still for longer than five seconds, when we slow down and engage with another, when we focus on one thing at a time, or notice the beauty of the people and places that surround us. Stop and take a deep breath, let more commas into your life, take the time to see the stars, to pause, to breathe, to be….

(We’ll talk about …. another time)

Until then,

kb