Silence

Ever noticed how loud silence is? Silence is deafening. 

I don't just mean the type of silence that you experience when you are secluded, either. That is a special silence. I'm talking about the plethora of other variations silence comes in.

How about the silence when you are so engrossed in a good book that you don't hear anything around you? Or the silence that comes when you're lost in thought somewhere far from your actual location, especially in a memory.

Then there's the silence that we know from our friends when they are simply loving us and letting us have time with them. And the silence we feel when we've hurt or been hurt and are isolated whether by choice or not. 

These are real and tangible for certain, but suppose we take it up a notch.

Of late there has been ample opportunity for silence for my own perusal. The reasons for such may at some time be posted, but for now I must refrain. 

I've had moments of silence in recent days from everything around me at varying times. I've had silence from my doctors leaving decisions to me (I'm thankful, and annoyed at the same time). Silence from friends as they are providing me with support but space while I try to comprehend all that's been given. Silence from the big dawg as he lets me sort out my thoughts and feelings and come to some measure of understanding (and I love him all the more for it). I've had tidbits of silence from my other family while they let me talk it out trying to make sense. I had what felt like silence from God even a few times.

Then came the silence of peace. Peaceful silence is when you can be sitting in the middle of an arena and you hear nothing at all. No yelling, no music, no event sounds, only the sound of your own breathing in and out. This is the silence when I have affirmation that God wasn't silent, He was simply allowing me to come to Him in my own time and cry as a toddler who wants to be cuddled for safety. This silence is achieved when wearily I came, begged to be comforted, and was scooped up and simply held. Held for as long as I needed and without question or motive. 

Silence is deafening, and the loudest of all is peace.

The things I hear

I know, I know, two blog posts in one week...I can see the shock on your faces. But let's be honest, it's January and there's just not a whole lot going on.

Even though it's January and I fully expected to be spending most of it stuck indoors or bundled to the point that I look twice my size outdoors due to cold, I find myself sitting outside on my patio on a Saturday morning listening. It is cloudy but not so much that I can't still see the blue in the sky and the sun is trying it's best to poke through and take us even higher than the 57* we are at now. For those of you that are aware of my feelings for mornings, understand that this is how I love morning. To be able to wake up after daylight and take time to sit and hear everything as it wakes up and I along with it. It is rejuvenating and exhilarating in ways I can't put into words.

As the suns rays rise and fall across my face I am enjoying the symphony of birds that spend their winter's here. Some are less melodic than others and there's one that sounds a bit like a small child squealing in a high pitched, didn't get their way kind of squeal. A couple of woodpeckers are trading their tunes back and forth. Then there's the squirrels. Wow are they playful this morning! Chattering, and running around. There are a few of them that are playing a game of chase, or maybe it's more of a game of I stole your acorn, bet ya can't catch me. Either way, they are running up and down the trees and it's fun to watch and hear.

Because it's Saturday the traffic on the highway close by is much less, and much quieter. It allows me to be able to hear the train whistle when it's still nearly downtown, and even a tug boat on the river. I miss the sound of boats in the morning. And without fail every few minutes I can hear a plane fly overhead.

The neighbor's dog walked over for breakfast at another neighbor's house and was greeted by the resident Labrador before deciding to skip the meal for now in place of sunning in the middle of the street. She sighs as another dog barks at something they heard.

Even now there is a dove sitting on a wire watching me and the crow across the yard. It hasn't moved in nearly five minutes.

Ah, the neighbor comes to feed the sunning dog and they have a conversation of stretches and scratches before the neighbor goes back in. Dog on the other hand, stares at the food, knows it won't go anywhere and proceeds to go back to sunning. Priorities to a dog. *smile*

I wish today my priorities including just sitting here listening to the world around me, but there are chores to be done and errands to be run. Take some time for yourselves though and enjoy simply listening to the world around you, especially in the mornings when it's just coming to life.

I'm not so strange afterall...

This morning in our staff devotions, we read Psalm 19. If you haven't read it in awhile, or ever, stop now and go read it. Okay, you caught up? Good. This thought occurred to me after reading it, when I was supposed to be listening to the devotions leader...oops.

God wants us to be delighted each time we see the new sunrise as a reminder to the power and glory of Him.

It is an interesting revelation to know that my love for the simple act of a sunrise is given to me by my creator.
People have occasionally viewed me as naive or even slightly removed from reality because I enjoy stopping to view the sunrise and even the rising moon on a clear night. Perhaps to some extent I am a simpleton because I find the beauty in these and other seemingly small things in the world around me, but if that means that I am drawn closer to my God who created these things, then I welcome being called simple.

(This picture was one morning just before a storm on the drive in to work)