Winter Solstice

A friend reminded me recently of this quote by Mother Teresa (thanks, Aaron!) and I’ve been thinking about it a lot this week. I’ve been trying to make space for more silence in my life. Mostly in the forms of meditation, prayer and general quietude but also in the small places.

Like when I’m driving the half mile to pick up the boys from school because it’s raining really hard. Or I’m waiting in a long line at the grocery store. Or sitting in a waiting room. Those are the times I usually pull out my phone and excuse myself for some mindless scrolling because hey, it’s just a few minutes and this way I’ll get a quick Instagram scroll out of my system when I’m not able to do anything productive anyway.

But those are the moments when I think I could actually use more quiet. I don’t need to fill every damn space with distraction! But it’s hard, I tell ya. The phone. It’s right there. I’m working on it. This week I’ve been playing around with setting my phone to grayscale for most of the day – to make it less interesting. We’ll see. Mostly I feel more creative and alive and energized when I’ve got more still and quiet space in my day and that seems reason enough to keep working on it.

Anyway, the MT quote…

“We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees and flowers and grass—grow in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence.

Mother Teresa

This seems a fitting day for such a quote because it’s the darkest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere. If there is anything that encourages stillness and silence, it’s Winter Solstice. Well, that’s what I’m telling myself, anyway, as the sun sets and it’s only four freakin’ thirty up in here!