Last Monday, my girls convinced their father that we all needed to have dinner at our family’s favorite restaurant: Moe’s. (Yes, you read that correctly. Moe’s Southwest Grill. We are obviously a family of gourmands!)
We met my husband directly from work, ate dinner, and we were home by 6:00. The kids went upstairs and quickly got absorbed in some sort of game. The kitchen was clean, and we still had some time before we had to start the bedtime routine for the boys, so I pulled out some laundry to fold, a task I actually find calming. My husband sat next to me working on building this very website. The evening sunshine was slanting through the room and it was so quiet! I paused in my folding and just soaked in the peacefulness.
As a homeschooling mom of four, peace and quiet is a rare thing around my house. While I’m not so crazy about the children’s bickering, I do love all the laughter, music, and chatter they bring into my life. I enjoy watching their crazy games and seeing their friends come over and enjoy themselves. But as loud, chaotic day follows loud chaotic day, the noise of life crowds out the voice of my soul.
If I am not careful, every moment could contain some sort of sensory input – music, my all-too-addictive smart phone, TV, children, phone calls … the list goes on and on. It gets to the point sometimes where I can’t even hear myself think!
A friend made an interesting comment to me a while ago when I told her that I was going to have an entire afternoon all to myself. She asked me what I was going to do, and I rattle off the usual list: catch up on cleaning or laundry, grocery shop, or whatever else pressing thing that needed to be done. She smiled at me and said “Well, I hope you can take some time just to be”.
I was startled. “Take time just to be”? What did that even mean? Is it okay just to sit in silence and do nothing? Just sit and think?
So that afternoon I tried it. I went out on my deck, sat down, and closed my eyes. I heard the birds sing. I felt the warmth of the sun on my skin, the heat of the deck under my feet. I smelled the sweetness of the summer air. And I thought. I thought, and I prayed, and I thought, and I prayed. I let myself ‘be’.
No hurrying.
No worrying.
No being stressed.
And you know what? The quiet fed my soul. I grew as a person. Taking time to sit outside in nature, or inside in quiet, praying and communicating with God makes me stronger. I am a better mom, a better wife, a better child of God.
So as life continues to become ever more busy (did I mention that soccer season overlaps with baseball season?), I will continue to carve out time just to be.