Finding Quiet
It’s funny how loud our lives are without our notice.
It’s only during extraordinary circumstances that we realize how deafening daily life is.
As I sit in the quiet, allowed by a power outage, I realize the constant hum and chatter of my home that inflicts an input I cannot escape.
Only the sound of the cat purring and the flicker of a candle are constant. The tap of the dogs feet on the floor breaks this consistency. My tinnitus rages on, free from the entrapment of background noises.
I think in this moment, with candles burning and a fire in the wood stove warming, are we meant to have such excessive, intrusive feedback every living moment?
From computer fans, to refrigerators, to televisions or devices, even our light fixtures have a murmur that our brain is constantly having to overcome.
And we wonder why we cannot rest.
Our lives are so filled and our technology has blessed us in so many amazing ways, but with that blessing come burdens.
We never truly unplug. We never actually get away. At least most don’t.
Very few people ever really escape our tech and noise filled life. We always have a phone or smart watch or radio near by.
But what if we didn’t? Could you survive it?
Could you thrive? What if it was just for an hour? I feel like most people don’t step away from their device of choice at all during a day, even when we sleep they are by our beds ready to wake us and be the first thing we touch in the morning. We are entangled. Obsessed. Dependent.
But maybe we should embrace the quiet more. Depart from the tech and just… well, just be. Be who we are without a post or likes to go with it. Be where we are without involving a mass of people we aren’t near.
Maybe we should do that on purpose.
My challenge to you and to myself is to start with being apart from our tech for just an hour a day. All tech- not just switching from your phone to the tv or computer.
Go outside, in the woods or anywhere surrounded by nature and God’s gifts is ideal but sitting on your front steps or a bench is perfect as well. Sit at a table and play a board game or (my personal favorite) cards. Write, journal, do a puzzle, meditate, pray, do yoga, exercise without headphones, talk to a friend without your phone distracting you. Just find your quiet.
It’s harder than it sounds. Our electronic leashes control our lives but it’s important we take our control back.
Remember what is important and know most of it doesn’t lie behind a screen.
