“Freely and Lightly” by Emily Lex
I just finished reading “Freely and Lightly” by Emily Lex, a sweet, gentle and profound lesson in the search for peaceful living. Emily’s book is a mind- and soul-bearing journal of her five-year journey to living anxiety free in God’s presence.
I was given this book by my marketing consultant, Kristy Steele at Steele Marketing in Alexander City, Alabama. Five minutes before my first meeting with Kristy, I called her – stressed and highly anxious – to tell her I was so terribly sorry but I would be 15 minutes late. My exercise class ran long. Still in workout clothes, I was driving down a winding, curving road behind a slow van with no hope of arriving on the hour, and I was feeling horribly guilty about wasting her valuable time.
Kristy’s response was almost surreal. “Don’t hurry. Don’t be anxious about this. Don’t do that to yourself,” she said.
She showed me Emily Lex’s charming book with its simple but poignant artworks and its tender message, and a few meetings later, she gave me a copy.
As a dedicated, anxiety-ridden Type A, I have sought the key to peaceful living for decades. “Seek the peace” became my mantra when my husband was in seminary 20 years ago. Any time I had a big decision to make, I found a quiet place to notice how I felt – physically and mentally – as I “tried on” the various options available to me. If my breath went shallow, my chest seized up and every muscle in my body tightened for battle when I imagined living with an option, I knew peace was not in that choice. Often, the best one – the one filled with peace – fell over me like a blanket when I tried it on, and I immediately, and enthusiastically, set about implementing the peaceful decisions I made.
Seeking peace in this way was an excellent tool, but it is not peaceful living. Anxiety still reigned, and it drove my life, including my search for peace.
Emily Lex purports that peace is not a destination as I had supposed. It is the name of the road, and freely and lightly is the means of traveling it.
Read this book slowly – a few pages or chapters at a time. And give yourself a day or two to ingest what you have read before traveling further down the road with this thoughtful author.
May you live freely and lightly, and may you journey in peace all the days of your life.
