What happens when you allow yourself to sit in the quiet, to sit in the stillness?
MY MOST POWERFUL TOOL
This is truly one of my most powerful tools when it comes to choosing how I spend my time and where I focus my energies. Yet when I am wrapped up in all the ‘noise’, I can’t hear myself think, much less hear what my inner voice has to share.
She is so wise, this inner one.
AN EASIER WAY
Here are some recent examples. My daughter’s class was having a party and parents were asked to bring something. Normally, I would have whipped up something fabulous from scratch, but it was a gloriously full week and I knew that wasn’t going to work for me right then. My inner voice told me, ‘You won’t be at peace unless you contribute something-but make it easy for yourself’. So I signed up for coffee and ordered a Box of Joe. Done and done. That left me with the space that a week later as her class was headed out on their overnight trip—I had the desire (read-not obligation) to bake a few dozen cookies to send along with her to share with her classmates. Win and Win!
On a deeper level, my inner voice guides me when it is time to make a big decision. The day before we were to put our new home under contract I was in a full panic. My thoughts were running along the lines of: Who do you think you are having a home like that? People are going to think you are showing off. No one on this earth needs a home like that. How selfish of you to have something like that when there are people truly suffering in this world.
These are real concerns, so I sat in the quiet to listen to what needed to come forth. This is the wisdom I heard: I am me, I desired this home. We had been looking on and off for several years with no luck. Although unexpected, this particular home fit so many of our must-have criteria.
What other people think of me is none of my business.
I wanted this home for me to be surrounded in beauty and inspiration, for my daughter to have a safe place with other kids around to be friends with outside of school, for my husband who was now going to have a magnificent place to do his woodworking and anything else he wanted.
No one on earth does need a home like this—if need be, we all can exist on very little. If I had to guess I’d say maybe we could exist on 1/1000 of what we have, probably even less. Point being, I do not have to explain or justify my desires to anyone—they just are.
There is so much suffering in the world. And there is no one who is suffering that will benefit from me suffering along with them. The type of home I choose to live in does not make me the person I am in the world. We (all of us) live a very privileged existence. For us to not take advantage of that is criminal. To ignore the gifts we were given is criminal.
When I am joyful, I spread more joy. When I am full of love I spread more love. When I am generous, I spread more generosity. This is how we impact those who are suffering.
If I hadn’t created the space to allow this guidance I would have had two very different outcomes.
GET BEYOND THE NOISE
It may take a while if you are out of practice—and you may need to head off to a park or take a walk by yourself to truly be in the quiet-uninterrupted. This is your call to get beyond the noise. Revel in the silence and enjoy it all you can.
