day 23 - when the chatter stops.

Frederick Franck once wrote, "You can look at thinks while talking or with a radio going full blast, but you can see only when the chatter stops." Don't get me wrong, I love words and music. But there is something about finding quiet that nurtures my soul. When I allow myself a few minutes in the morning to just sit, not looking at my computer, or talking, or watching tv, or checking my phone, but really just hearing the quiet-- it is so still, so unusual, that it is an almost a shocking experience.

My life is full of noise, but lent is a time when I intentionally seek out times and places where the chatter stops. The last few days, I've gotten back into the habit of writing morning pages (a practice borrowed from Julia Cameron that you can read about here). Before I begin writing I just take a few minutes to breathe and to notice. I watch the morning light stream into the window, feel the warmth of my mug of tea in my hands, curl my toes under a blanket against the chill of the early morning air. Then I just write. No chatter, just me and my pen and notebook, and the soft sounds of the world waking up.

It is a practice I love, but that I too often let go of for the sake of a few extra minutes in bed before rushing off to class or work. But when I take the time, in truth I feel so much more rested than if I hit the snooze button an extra time. When the chatter stops, we not only see the world and ourselves in new ways, I think we also find God. It is as if God is in that air, that light, speaking in these deep but quiet ways, and when the chatter stops, I finally hear him breathing.