Quiet time, meditation, prayer... whatever you want to call it, do you take time for it? I love when the house is quiet and I have time to sit and enjoy the silence. I think, I pray, I read, I write, I day dream and sometimes, as embarrassed as I am to say it, I mindlessly look at the internet.
In the busyness of the season, I didn't always get this time and quite honestly, sometimes, it made me kind of cranky.
I didn't always enjoy the silence. I needed noise. I'd turn on the television or radio or I'd talk to whoever was with me, bombarding them with endless chatter but these days, I cherish the silence. I need the silence. It gives me peace.
I think silence is good for us. I can remember being on the beach with my parents
and they would sit and just look out at the waves, listening to them crash. I could do this for a few minutes but I could never understand how they could sit there for what seemed like hours in the 'silence' just listening.
My daddy would talk about how he enjoyed that time and was bothered when someone who didn't appreciate the silence would join him because the chatter drove him crazy. From that moment on I tried to watch my chatter too. I didn't want to be the person he was talking about who drove him crazy, though I'm pretty I often was.
I was reading something recently that talked about silence and how we are losing it in society. It talked about the music in stores and elevators. Now, I don't think I remember a time when there wasn't music playing in stores when we shopped... well, maybe the grocery store. Do you? When did it start? Is it just that it has gotten louder? I may have to google this and see what it has to say. This article seemed to say that having to have the constant noise is what has made us lose our appreciation of silence. I wonder if it's an age thing. The older we get the more we appreciate it? Maybe. It is certainly true for me.
The silence is where I get lost in my thoughts, where I pray my hardest, where I have the most amazing day dreams!
I read a book several years ago and I am rereading it again, this time with my darling daughter. It is kind of a nostalgic book on traditions from an earlier time. It's a fun book. Today DD was reading it and she discovered a page on family circle time. She laughed when the author suggested that modern families don't have this, oh, yes, they watch TV together but they aren't really spending time together, they aren't making memories. They are merely sharing the same room. It made me think of the silence again, or at least of the quiet. The time before constant television, computers, cell phones. tablets. A time when families played games, read together, did handicrafts together and such. There was probably little silence. The silence would have been filled with laughter and sharing.
After my husband's first deployment we took the family to Disney World. While we were there I discovered an Uncle Remus book. My grandmother used to read the Brer Rabbit stories to me when I was little and I loved them! I wanted to share Brer Rabbit's shenanigans with my kids so we bought the book and I read it aloud in the car during our travels. Our car was silent one moment with only the sound of my voice reading and then would be suddenly filled with sounds of laughter! So much so that a time or two, my husband had to pull over because he was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face and he couldn't see! It was such a wonderful time! The silence led to such joy, such laughter, such fun, such memories!
Oh, I've really gotten a bit off topic here but my point is that silence is good for us. It's good for our soul. It can bring joy, peace, and contentment. It can bring us closer together, closer to God. This year I'm hoping to make time for the silence, for prayer, for writing, for reading, for day dreaming, for meditating. Won't you join me?
In the busyness of the season, I didn't always get this time and quite honestly, sometimes, it made me kind of cranky.
I didn't always enjoy the silence. I needed noise. I'd turn on the television or radio or I'd talk to whoever was with me, bombarding them with endless chatter but these days, I cherish the silence. I need the silence. It gives me peace.
I think silence is good for us. I can remember being on the beach with my parentsand they would sit and just look out at the waves, listening to them crash. I could do this for a few minutes but I could never understand how they could sit there for what seemed like hours in the 'silence' just listening.
My daddy would talk about how he enjoyed that time and was bothered when someone who didn't appreciate the silence would join him because the chatter drove him crazy. From that moment on I tried to watch my chatter too. I didn't want to be the person he was talking about who drove him crazy, though I'm pretty I often was.
I was reading something recently that talked about silence and how we are losing it in society. It talked about the music in stores and elevators. Now, I don't think I remember a time when there wasn't music playing in stores when we shopped... well, maybe the grocery store. Do you? When did it start? Is it just that it has gotten louder? I may have to google this and see what it has to say. This article seemed to say that having to have the constant noise is what has made us lose our appreciation of silence. I wonder if it's an age thing. The older we get the more we appreciate it? Maybe. It is certainly true for me.
The silence is where I get lost in my thoughts, where I pray my hardest, where I have the most amazing day dreams!
I read a book several years ago and I am rereading it again, this time with my darling daughter. It is kind of a nostalgic book on traditions from an earlier time. It's a fun book. Today DD was reading it and she discovered a page on family circle time. She laughed when the author suggested that modern families don't have this, oh, yes, they watch TV together but they aren't really spending time together, they aren't making memories. They are merely sharing the same room. It made me think of the silence again, or at least of the quiet. The time before constant television, computers, cell phones. tablets. A time when families played games, read together, did handicrafts together and such. There was probably little silence. The silence would have been filled with laughter and sharing.
After my husband's first deployment we took the family to Disney World. While we were there I discovered an Uncle Remus book. My grandmother used to read the Brer Rabbit stories to me when I was little and I loved them! I wanted to share Brer Rabbit's shenanigans with my kids so we bought the book and I read it aloud in the car during our travels. Our car was silent one moment with only the sound of my voice reading and then would be suddenly filled with sounds of laughter! So much so that a time or two, my husband had to pull over because he was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face and he couldn't see! It was such a wonderful time! The silence led to such joy, such laughter, such fun, such memories!
Oh, I've really gotten a bit off topic here but my point is that silence is good for us. It's good for our soul. It can bring joy, peace, and contentment. It can bring us closer together, closer to God. This year I'm hoping to make time for the silence, for prayer, for writing, for reading, for day dreaming, for meditating. Won't you join me?
I don't particularly like silence. Sometimes it is even frightening to me. I believe silence has a cleansing effect in that it removes all the distractions of the day or week or of life, and leaves us open to hear the still small voice of God. And that can be a frightening or a grace filled experience.
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