You’re Allowed To Stand Still

Posted on by Biko

Alex Iby.jpg

We’re always going. From beds to coffee shops, to offices, places and spaces that constitute fragments of our sustenance. To crawling cars at half past four. To homes that take us back at the end of it. To dinner tables. To beds. To all of it. All over again.

Stuck in this constant grind. Moving towards our perceptions of success. Of satisfaction in a world that looks like it might move past us if we’re half past it. If we aren’t doing everything we think we’re meant to be doing. If we don’t get out of the bed to begin with.

And most times that’s part and parcel of our our own internal movement to something greater. Understanding and chasing our dreams and aspirations – even on the mornings we rather not.

But sometimes we can’t really do that.
Sometimes we can’t really go.

Maybe ‘can’t’ isn’t the right word. Because parts of us know that we have in the past. Because parts of us want to with every fibre that makes them, them. Because we’ve been told that the world doesn’t know the word “can’t” – that it moves on without us. That we can’t be left behind.

Maybe there is no right word that truly encapsulates those moments of apparent immobility. Because they feel exactly like that. Like drinking out of empty coffee mugs. Like the cars crawling. Like standing still in a world that moves past us.

But everything that surrounds us exists irrespective of us.

We are our own microcosm of a universe.

Made of everything that makes us. Of action and inaction. Of mobility and immobility. Of moments.

And in those moments when we stop to breathe, when we stand still to take in the world that surrounds and lives within us, we find our own little coffee shops.

Each facilitating parts of our own unique journey. Each making that next step that much greater. Each forming our own internal satisfaction.

Each and every one of them shaping our own microcosm of a universe. All over again.

Written By: Hudson Biko

Photograph: Alex Iby

Previously published by Thought Catalog at www.thoughtcatalog.com.

12 thoughts on “You’re Allowed To Stand Still”

  1. Brilliant writing Biko! I especially liked, “And in those moments when we stop to breathe, when we stand still to take in the world that surrounds and lives within us, we find our own little coffee shops.” Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Wow, great post! I can definitely relate to that feeling of standing still in life. But maybe it’s okay to feel that way sometimes.
    Beautiful writing here. Thank you for posting this.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much for reading it! Yeah completely, I think that sometimes standing still is part of the process in our own growth to what we eventually become and sometimes we forget that. Once again, thank you and I’m so happy you relate to it! 🙂

      Like

  6. There is this cafe, I often sit there and write. However there are times when I’ve caught myself stagnant in those moments. Just sitting and staring at the world passing by, the little wasp mumbling outside the glass pane, the froth in my coffee slowing dying and so on. Things just seem to slow down as if I’m in some parallel universe staring at all things that exist around me. Those are the moments in where I realize that I exist!

    Reading this sent me back there for a while 🙂
    Much love.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Totally relate! I love those moments. They’re filled with so much clarity and realization in a world that almost stands still. Thank you for reading this. ❤️

      Liked by 1 person

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