When I started down this road in 2023, I felt like God was telling me the name of this blog, but it was already taken so I had to be creative with words that mean something to me, maybe to you too.
Peace and quiet are often hard-won challenges and neither of them come easily. The peace arrives after you find the quiet, but how do you do that when our world is so noisy? We have work, family, pets, hobbies, when is there quiet in your day?
When I worked in a school building, people would ask me about my favorite time of day. It was 15 minutes after the kids had left. Why? It was finally quiet. School buildings are busy and full of noise, all day. There is a certain serenity when teachers can finally take a breath and just be at the end of the day.
Some people struggle with quieting the voice in their head, it’s constantly running, but you must practice being quiet. I do enjoy a silent retreat, but I find the quiet every day- outside somewhere, either in a park or in my neighborhood. I walk and pray and listen. Today I didn’t hear God speaking to me, but I did hear the wind, birds singing, the song of traffic in the distance, and laughter from the kids playing outside.
Being quiet means I notice what is happening around me, all of the sensations I would miss if I were listening to a podcast, music, or chatting on the phone. When you practice consistently, you will begin to notice that you feel more peace-full when you just listen and don’t keep a constant narrative going.
My personal preference is to be outside, and trust me, when I don’t get out for a few days because of bad weather, I am grumpy. But you can find the quiet anywhere, choose to look for it. In your bedroom, away from the family for a few minutes, before the house gets up, or on your commute. You can decide the when and where, just realize that you won’t arrive in the place of peace without finding the quiet space to just be with God first.
