Noticing Daily Quiet Moments
Wednesday Wisdom. This month, we will explore the theme of quietness. How do we discover quiet in our daily lives; how do we enjoy it; how do we allow it to help us cultivate our interior lives?
I began noticing daily quiet moments, as a way to offset the constant feeling of being busy and rushing in my daily life. I could sense my need to cultivate more spaciousness inside of me. I decided to begin listening to the quiet moments in my day, allowing them to offer me a way to become more mindful and present.
The more I tuned into these daily quiet moments, the more I noticed that they were all around me.
The first cherry blossoms were quiet; the sound of my bicycle tires on the pavement were quiet; and the moist fog on my cheeks felt quiet. I noticed the shadows around me were quiet; my body sitting in my favorite chair felt quiet; and eating lunch without reading my email was quiet.
I am amazed how many quiet moments there actually are in my day if I notice them, acknowledge them, and allow them to connect with an interior sense of quietness. In this way, silence and prayer are enhanced and supported through and in our daily quiet moments.
There is a softness to being quiet: it’s gentle, it’s spacious. Quiet moments help us to relax, calm the busy mind, notice what’s around us, and dwell more deeply in our lives. They create more room for us to live in participation with the Holy.
Practice: Can you cultivate more awareness of the quiet that is already in your life, and allow it to bring you more interior spaciousness?
- Notice the quiet in the warm water as you wash your face
- Notice the quiet in your car
- Notice the quiet sound of your feet touching the ground when you walk
- Notice the quiet in the shadows all around you
- Notice the quiet in newly bloomed tulips
