North Carolina moves in the tone of sitting. My grandparents, farmers and mill workers still mostly enjoyed just sitting with one another.

Everything there, just sits in its own being and considers things at the end of the day. It’s a “be still, and know” sort of thing. I like that about the Carolinas. Some people mistake sitting for laziness, but that’s a big mistake. Sitting in order to just be, is an active stance towards things—it’s not passive. It is akin to humility, i think.

It says, i’m not in charge of the universe, nor do I want to be. I am instead, an appreciator and participator in the days. Sitting is a needed virtue these days.

In Watchman Nee’s book: Sit Walk Stand, he describes the order of how to live well. Sit with God, walk with God and then Stand with Him in whatever task you are partnering in on earth. That pattern feels true. We have to sit first, then walk and stand. Otherwise we don’t know where we are walking nor why we are standing. I think my home state is good at the sitting part, though at times it drives me crazy how much sitting is going on. Yet, sitting is like sabbathing with what is. It’s a good practice to just sit together and be.

When I leave there, I often forget to stop and just sit with. It helps to be reminded to just sit sometimes. Thanks North Carolina for reminding me to do so from time to time! Although, Lord knows, I’m not the best sitter in the world!It requires and develops patience to just be. But one way to embody it, must be just to sit! At least, that’s how it seems to a runner like me.

Texas, of course, is more of a builder. It relentlessly finds and forms the frontier. I appreciate that aspect of its identity, that, “what happens here, changes the world” mentality, which is the university slogan, or Nasa’s just go to the moon; but at times, it struggles with just sitting.

Interesting to think what different gifts each region, city or nation carries, and what they would look like in collaboration and service towards one another. We probably need the gifts of each region, city and nation to be more ourselves, to be more fully human. But this weekend, i was appreciating the just sitting part of where I’m from. Rest into creative action! We have to be, before we do. Good reminder this weekend!