when the noise overwhelms

We noticed it first as a low buzzing sound. Sailing in our silver car down the familiar three-lane motorway, just like any other day. Then, the hum. It emerged quite unexpectedly from behind us, quickly transitioning into a low roar that filled our senses. You know, the kind of sound that consumes your attention; that you can feel reverberate right through you.

Scanning the rear view mirrors, I watched as that low roar exploded to reveal a host of revving motorcycles and their riders. Edging ever closer to our vehicle with my kids tucked inside. Ears ringing; head spinning; the sound blasted through our car as the motorcade inched forward.

Behind us; almost upon us; beside us; then before us. The consuming noise. The instant overwhelm. And us, still driving.

Perhaps you know the feeling?
When the noise overwhelms your senses.
When the situation becomes too much to bear.
When the hurt swallows you up and the pain just won’t let go.
When the hum of discontent increases until it’s all you hear.
When the roar around you matches the roar inside you, and the road ahead blurs.
When the moment that you’re in consumes you, and there is no clear way out.

So I did the only thing that I could. I kept on driving. Through the whirring, buzzing, bone-jarring volume. A noise that increased to unbearable heights as the motorcycles descended upon us, pressed in around us on all sides, pushing past us and ahead of us at a pace determined only by them. One, by one, by one, by one. Three by three. Until, finally, they were all ahead of us. Motorcycles stretching into the distance looking rather like a disappearing throng of unappreciated mosquitoes, and the noise subsiding as they travelled on. From a low roar, to a hum, to a gentle thrum, until all we could hear was our own breathing and the relative silence of our wheels rolling onward.

And that’s when it dawned on me.

No matter how intently we may have felt our aloneness, we were not alone on that road that day. There were others. Cars ahead of us and beside us and behind us, spread haphazardly around and across the three lanes. We didn’t know each other, we hadn’t travelled this way together before.

And yet, there were two things that unified our response to the noise and the overwhelm. Every single one of us.
They were this simple:

Slow down.

Stay in your lane.

In life, there can be so much noise, can’t there. So many things grasping for your attention; reaching to tear you away from the present moment that you find yourself in. Whether it’s the trauma of past pain come back to haunt you, fresh grief ripping into you at the most unexpected of moments, the roar of alllthethings – even the wonderful ones – commanding your attention, or the piercing intensity of a situation that you had no way of anticipating… there’s always something.

Always.

Something that will reach for, demand and command your attention. Noises that will seek to overwhelm and drive you to distraction. But that’s not all there is. There is now. There is this moment.

And there is a choice.

Will you slow down? It may not be possible to slow the physical speed with which you have to get things done right now. But will you take a breath and centre yourself for a moment, trusting that you are worth that time?

When you choose to slow down, the things around you become more clear. Yes, as I slowed our car that day the noise felt like it increased a hundred fold. I couldn’t erase the terrible stories from recent news articles that spun around inside my head as the urgent sound of the bikes filled my senses. But the slowing, the easing, the resting, the trusting that forward was still the right way to go… that is how the road before me gained clarity. That is what gave me the strength to continue on.

It might be that you can only see one very small step at a time. It might feel like a fight to stop your yesterdays from invading your today. But it is your step. Your time. And in slowing down your internal rhythm, you will give your vision time to clear and your soul room to breathe.

Will you stay in your lane? In a world where it is so easy to see what you’re missing out on, will you take stock of what you already have? Will you remember that your lane is yours for a reason? That your path is yours, and yours alone?

In that three lane motorway as the noise assailed my senses, I took stock of where I was. Of the children nestled in the car with me. Yes, I saw the other cars on that road. But their journeys were not mine. There was only one car that day whose future was in my hands. And I stayed. Caught in the middle of the unfolding events, navigating that centre lane. We pressed on, we pressed in, we slowed down, and we stayed the course. There, in our own lane.

So next time the roar surrounding you rises to fever pitch;
when the noise overwhelms,
remember.

Slow down. Stay in your lane.

And know this: you are not alone.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Always so very thankful for you,

Kristy x