Please Slow Down
Six Months Into a Year of Noticing
This year I chose the word notice.
I chose that word in January, and now somehow it is nearly July.
Halfway through the year already.
Which feels impossible.
Where has the time gone?
It is a question many of us ask, shaped by our relationship with time, pace, and perception.
Some seasons feel endless while we are in them.
Others disappear before we can fully hold them.
And yet six months later, I am still carrying this word with me.
Still noticing.
Still paying attention.
Still being formed by what I almost missed before.
I began noticing things on my walks.
Lately, I started noticing variations of the same message.
Once I saw them, I started seeing them everywhere.
One said:
Please Slow Down.
Another said:
Slow Down, Kids Playing.
And then there was the simple word Slow, nestled among the landscaping of a beautiful yard.
And somehow, that one may have caught my attention most of all.
A beautifully designed wooden sign placed prominently in front of someone’s home. Not a warning. Not a traffic device. An intentional choice. As though slowing down mattered enough to be displayed as prominently as a house number.
Different signs.
Different tones.
Different expressions of care.
And maybe because of the season I am in, I could not stop thinking about them.
There have been seasons of my life marked almost entirely by hurry.
“Hurry up.”
“We’re late.”
“Come on.”
“Keep moving.”
Seasons filled with movement.
Schedules.
Deadlines.
Responsibilities.
Constant motion.
And now, somehow, I find myself in a slower season.
Not an empty one.
Not a lazy one.
But one with enough room to notice.
Enough room to process.
Enough room to pay attention to what God has been forming in me all along.
Formation takes time.
Maybe that is why I keep returning to that word form too.
Because we are not shaped instantly.
We are formed slowly.
Through seasons.
Through repetition.
Through joy and grief and interruptions and ordinary days.
Some seasons move quickly.
Some move quietly.
Some distract us.
Some awaken us.
And maybe wisdom is learning not to idolize either pace.
Because sometimes hurry pulls us away from what matters.
And sometimes hurry moves us toward it.
Sometimes slowing down helps us notice.
And sometimes slowing down keeps us stuck.
Sometimes wisdom says, “Be still.”
Sometimes wisdom says, “Get moving.”
Maybe formation is learning to notice the difference.
As I reflected on those signs, I found myself returning to the sign that did not originally say please.
Someone had added the word please.
A small addition.
Just a few stickers.
But apparently someone felt the need to soften the message.
To turn a command into a request.
To add gentleness where there had only been instruction.
And honestly, some days that is exactly how I experience the voice of God.
Tender.
Patient.
Inviting me to breathe.
To pay attention.
To notice.
Then I think about the roadside figure holding the bright flag, urging drivers to slow down because children are nearby.
And suddenly I hear something different.
Not harshness.
Not anger.
But the voice of a loving father seeing a child about to run into the street.
There is no time for “please.”
Only love urgent enough to shout:
“Slow down!”
Love sometimes whispers.
Love sometimes warns.
Both and.
And through it all, God remains faithful.
Faithful in the hurried years.
Faithful in the slower ones.
Faithful in the forming.
Oh, for grace to trust His timing.
To honor His pace.
To believe He wastes nothing.
Not the hurried years.
Not the distracted seasons.
Not even the exhaustion.
He has been at work in every season.
Perhaps noticing is less about paying attention to what is new and more about recognizing the God who has been faithfully forming us all along.
Halfway through the year feels like a fitting time to pause and notice.
I created this Midyear Notice Check-In as a companion to this reflection, a gentle invitation to slow down long enough to ask God to reveal more of Himself and to help you recognize the ways He has been faithfully at work all along.
Beautiful Sharon
Thank you for this check in.