when quiet takes action

I'm 27 days into to making some changes, and I have to say that thus far, it's been amazing!!  I feel better than I've felt in years.  I have hope and life and momentum and joy.  And I have flossed 27 days in a row.  Woo HOO!!!

I keep seeing things about people not making resolutions or goals or trying to come up with a word this year.  They are simply resting, listening to their bodies and what life has for them.  And I wish that could be me right now, but this is a year of action.

This is not my year to rest and listen. This is my year to create space SO THAT I can rest and listen, and actually hear what's being said.

I'm a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), and as such, deeply affected by my surroundings and environment.  Clutter and too much has a paralyzing and depressing effect on me.  My threshold for what is overwhelming is probably lower than the average joe.

Sometimes I think that I'm living in the wrong era - this era of more, bigger, better, louder, faster, busier.  "Keeping up with the Joneses" in all this would literally send me to the looney bin.  But "they" say this is the right way to do things.  This is what's normal today and what I need to do in order to fit in and keep up.

Cacophony.  Yeah, that's what all this sounds like to me.  

The more I self-reflect, I more I realize that I insulate myself from the cacophony around me so that I can function.  Often, life feels too loud, too harsh, too much.

When I shut out the world, when I insulate myself, when I proverbially stick my fingers in my ears, the chaos is muted and sounds a little more like white noise...static.  It's manageable.  But when I do that, I shut out His voice too.  I can no longer hear Him.  And I shut out the good things, the joy.

With my fingers in my ears and everything else blocked out, sadly the only things I can hear loud and clear are the voices in my own head. And let me tell you, when I'm singing, "La, la, la" to the world, the voices in my head are not very kind.  

As I wrote about before, my word for the year is CHANGE. This action word ironically chosen mostly to quiet my life so that it no longer sounds like white noise.

Quieting my home.

Quieting my mind and body.

Quieting my time.

Quieting my family.

Quieting technology.


It seems ironic to have to actively quiet your life...to put forth much effort and work, so that the loudness in your home, mind, family, time, and technology will hush.  But sometimes, life is full of irony and I'm coming to the realization that trying to be still amidst the noise isn't working for me.

There is nothing quiet about being still amidst the noise.  Then it's just loud, still noise.  So, I'm pulling my fingers out of my ears, looking up, and making some changes.  

No one said I had to play by "their" rules, and I'm not gonna.

Hopefully with all this quieting, I will actually be able to hear.


What areas of your life can use some quieting these days?  

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