Called

I'd spent the morning at work, despite nominally being on vacation, since my to-do list is of fairly epic proportions at the moment. Arriving at the masjid for Friday Prayers, my mind was still running over an email I needed to write. I can't honestly say that any of this felt like particularly burdensome: I didn't need to go back to my desk in the afternoon and I was vaguely enjoying thinking over the details of the email, feeling confident that I would be able to manage the tone I was looking for and keep the thing to just a few simple lines.

But as I sat waiting for proceedings to really get going, and the call to prayer abruptly commenced, I realised just how far my thoughts had drifted from the business of worship at hand. This was particularly the case since the azan was gorgeously melodic and wrenched me immediately to another place. In that moment I experienced a powerful sense of release, made strangely sharper by the fact I hadn't been in any way lost poorly in my thoughts.

It occurred to me that my ability to re-focus, as I found myself doing in that moment, has become stronger as I have grown older, possibly because my engagement in any line of thought has become less intense, even when the thoughts are serious, even troubling. Somehow I'm less invested in whatever is on my mind and more ready to surrender to the needs of the moment in terms of the kind of attention demanded. I'm not exactly sure that I'm finding it easier to let go, but I'm certainly more ready to follow when called.