This week Mama Kat asks what is your favorite time of day. My favorite time is any time I can be quiet and focused, something I wrote about in 2011.
 |
| Stylized view of Point Zero in the center of Paris. |
Find your own quiet center and write from that to the world. ~Sarah Orne Jewett
Raising a family it is hard to find quiet anywhere, let alone your own quiet center. But quiet is essential. You must spend time in quiet to know what you think and where you stand on issues. Quiet is required for prayer and strengthening your faith. And dreams can not take form in a cacophony.
I started this blog in an effort to find my own quiet center, and the writing has helped me do just that. It is not that I have experienced an epiphany about what lies at my core, but the writing quite literally has helped me put into words what it is that I value most.
My quiet center has three main components. It is being in the place I love doing what I love with those I love. I have a greater than average need to be home. Much as I love to travel, there is no place I have encountered that could ever permanently lure me away from home. The Kansas plains, calm and steady, are where I am meant to be. My little stone house on a quiet little street appeals to me more than the Biltmore Estate ever could.
I find my quiet center in creating… whether chopping vegetables while making dinner for my family, digging in the garden, piddling with an art project or writing here, I need to create. It makes me happy.
Life is too short to spend with people who you drain you. I have learned to let go of relationships that do nothing to build me up. Time is short as it is; I intend to spend as much of mine as possible with the people I love.
May we all find our own quiet center and spend much time there. We will leave the world a better place if we do.
Oh Amen and amen. And how fitting that you, who always seem so centered, live in the center of the country, as well. I thought of you as I traveled across the country with my daughter this last fall, through the center of the country, although we never traveled in Kansas - we trekked a bit north.
ReplyDeleteThese grown people we have been given to share our lives with....they are amazing, aren't they? So far you and I share the road trips in common, but oh-those grand babies! You've got me there, Barb!
DeleteGreat post. I"m with you on needing quiet, on creativity and on avoiding what drains.
ReplyDeleteAnd there is much to be said for reaching a point in life where we just come right out and say when we need the quiet or the space. What a relief it was to get to that point.
Delete