Book two · In progress
Yellow Lights
Green tells us to go. Red tells us to stop. Yellow asks us to become aware that something is changing.
The next book from David S. Franklin, author of How to Catch a Turtle, explores the space between what was and whatever comes next: the transitions we move through every day, large and small, and what becomes possible when we actually notice them.
From the introduction
The Yellow Light
We understand traffic lights almost instinctively. Green gives us permission to continue, red requires us to stop, and yellow alerts us that something is changing. Yet yellow is the one we tend to negotiate with. Depending on where we are and how quickly we are moving, we decide whether to slow down or keep going. Sometimes, when we are moving too fast, we barely acknowledge it at all.
For much of my life, I approached transitions in much the same way. I moved from one task to another, one meeting to another, one responsibility to another, and eventually from one career to another without giving much thought to the space between them.
Between an inhale and an exhale there is a slight pause. We usually don’t notice it because there is no reason to. The breath comes in, there is a moment of transition, and the breath leaves. Nothing needs to be accomplished in that space.
There are similar spaces in life. Something has just happened, something else will eventually happen, and for a moment we are standing between the two.
What matters is not how long the yellow light lasts, but whether we recognize that we are in it.
Excerpt from a work in progress. Text may change before publication.
Writing progress
Where the book stands
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While you wait
Start with How to Catch a Turtle
David’s first book is a gentle, practical introduction to mindfulness, available in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook.