Quiet

I've just come into the house after spending 20 minutes or so out on the back patio. It's cloudy out, cool, and recently rained. I wasn't out long before I started trying to identify the sounds I was hearing. I was especially interested in doing this, because we spent most of yesterday evening at a wedding and after-celebration that just seemed to get louder and louder as the evening wore on. I was really enjoying the quiet out back.

In the few minutes I sat there with my eyes closed, I heard the faint sounds of a train whistle (the nearest tracks are several miles away), an aircraft taking off from the nearby Eisenhower Airport, a very faint, low-frequency rumble from the direction of the airport that I never could identify (just above the threshold of hearing), an evening dove, a cardinal, the occasional shriek or noise of kids playing down the street, a dog barking far away, the occasional goldfish jumping at the surface of the backyard pond, quiet conversation of hikers or walkers on the path in the park just behind the house, once-in-a-while vehicle noise...but not loud, and my own breathing.

It is fascinating to me how many sounds one can pick out when in a quiet place and is intent upon listening. It's also a reminder to me that there are times to be in a noisy place, and there are also times to be in a quiet place...and to quiet one's mind and heart and understand what is surrounding me.

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I like to just sit and listen. Sit and meditate. Sit and think. Sit and be quiet. No phone. No TV. No music. Just quiet. Just me by myself. We have enough time in the day when we are busy with something else. We have constant bombardment of television, movies, music, and general noise...both environmental and otherwise. We need to rest our ears. We need to calm down our brains. We need to just be quiet for awhile.

Blessings

It has been both a busy time post Memorial Day, plus it has been a time for great reflection on some things that are often overlooked in a life of busy-ness and the Internet.

We have taken time off, the two of us, to sit our six grand kids so their parents can take a much-needed vacation…just the two of them.  They went to Miami, Florida and had a great time there doing the things people do in that part of the world.  We were at home with the six kids, doing what people do when they are thrust into that kind of environment.

We gave them back to the parents a week ago yesterday.  We finally got the house back in order last Saturday by cleaning, washing, carrying out trash, and all of the other things we needed to do with 8 people occupying the house for the week prior.

We also learned of the passing of our niece Robyn, and made several trips to see the family.  We went last Wednesday afternoon, and the wife made a trip by herself to be with her sister, Robyn’s mom, the next day.  Sunday we went to the “viewing,” and Monday was the funeral.

Of course, being off work for that amount of time resulted in lots of sticky notes on my desk that I only this morning got cleared.

Catching up on the goings-on of the church organism was another thing that I just now am getting back up to speed.  And in the middle of all of this we had an adjuster take a look at our slightly hail-damaged roof and are having our car’s windshield replaced due to a crack that developed due to hail damage.  The car itself seems to be fine otherwise; it just is an additional thing…the repair of the hail damage and the adjuster…that we have to include in the schedule.

So, what to make of all of this?  Most of what we have been working with in the past couple of weeks has been first-world.  That is, the problems that we’ve faced are a result of living in the middle class culture of a first-world nation.  Had we been living in some other culture, much of what we’ve dealt with (except the death of Robyn) would not have been an issue.  Of course, there would have been other issues that we would have to have worked with, such as clean water, something to eat for the day, or some kind of illness and no health care for hundreds of miles.

Sometimes, we complain about our circumstances, but fail to appreciate the blessings that are also part of those circumstances.  The blessing of healthy grand kids.  The blessing of a house that is large enough for 8 to be there comfortably.  The blessing of transportation that is comfortable, convenient, and available.  The blessing of family and friends.  The blessing of knowing Jesus Christ.  The blessing of a church family who loves us.

All of these and more are blessings from God Himself.  We dare not disparage them, complain about them, or look disdainfully at any of them; rather we need to give God thanks for those things He has provided in abundance.

And so I do that just now, and ask that you take a moment to reflect as well on the blessings that come your way each moment of each day.  Praise be to God for His bountiful grace and mercy.