While I find them annoying, I understand the purpose. Speed bumps are effective in slowing me down. Not that I have a history of going fast, mind you. But one of the places I navigate them, a retirement home, wants to guarantee the safety of their residents. I can still arrive where I am going, just without the urgency. 

The news lately has been been volatile enough to increase my heart rate, even without the caffeine in the Curious George smoothie I often start the morning with.  There is serious cause for concern from sweeping tariffs, and large scale firings that yank my attention from its moorings. I care about our national parks, veterans, and safety nets for our country's most vulnerable people. Yet these are in jeopardy. 

Eventually I stop reading about current casualties and step into the responsibilities of my day. It falls to me to respond to comments on a channel about spiritual ideas. Often the words that fly from my fingers are ones of reassurance, and scripture. 

"God directs all things, provides all things, and leads to a good end," I write. 

"Be still and know that I am God," is what I quoted yesterday.   

Even these brief responses calm my spirit. I wrote them from memory, and I also believed them. Can I believe them again?        

On Wednesdays I sing with four year olds. In the absence of a functional left arm my daughter has been coming with me as an accompanist. For a moment in time I can immerse myself in the innocence that thrives among the preschool set. It feels playful to sing about peanut butter, and the walls  of Jericho that come falling down. 

Several days a week I find myself in the company of nonagenarians. We have tea, and chat, but never discuss Washington. Pressing words from the press seem less critical when I am with someone who is in the queue for the perfect monarchy. 

It seems like God has put these speed bumps into my path intentionally. I can still arrive where I am going, but angst is no longer the fuel that drives me. Then I can truly trust that the walls that divide us will come crashing down.