Peace & Quiet

I've been dealing with a lot of emotional thoughts and feelings of late and every time i go to blog it's always the same topic that i want to write about, mostly stemming from my friendships and so, i wanted to blog but had nothing to blog about, until a friend and i were chatting on Skype about what we'd do once we'd retired, like how mindless it would be and then we started talking about mindless things like knitting to pass the time until we died, coz that's what all oldies do, right?!

For some reason it reminded me of how much i've been wanting to get away camping. Not because camping is necessarily mindless (altho it truly can be if you want it to be, imitating crows for AT LEAST an hour straight for instance!!) but just because camping is peaceful and quiet and nature is so beautiful.

It also reminded me of Camp Del Oro and i began to think about the best time of day at camp. This for me would be late at night when the teens are jumping into bed and you sit around the crackling fire under the stars ORRRR doing cabin watch late at night under THE most brightest moon and ponderosa pine trees - ahhh the tranquility, the magnificent awe of God's artwork - WOW~!!!!

i remember last year (2009) showing Kellie Covert, a counsellor the moon and the light it cast over the trees and the clouds surrounding the moon, showing her how beautiful it was, i didn't wanna be the only one to see it. I wished i could've painted it, it was so pretty!!!

It's bizarre what you read sometimes! The other day i came across a notebook that had some scribbles in it from my time at RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Award). I wrote this about some worries i had about doing meditation exercises:

"There is no strength or power that comes from self alone. Inner beauty comes from God alone. Not through meditating on self but rather by meditating on God and his word."

I then quoted these invaluable verses from God's word, the bible:

"Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God's wonders." Job 37:14 (CEV)

"But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me." Psalm 131:2 (NIV)

And yet a third verse which i will add here because of it's relevance:

"Be still, and know that I am God;" Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

Another favourite time of day for me in my ordinary life, is late at night. I'll sit on my bed in the dark as tho my room were a loft high above the street and i'll overlook the city lights and i'll listen. Some nights it will be loud and noisy and intrusive but there's the odd occasion when everyone is sleeping and the odd bat will screech across the sky but other than that, there's not a sound. In those times i just sit and listen to nothing - it's such peaceful silence!

Listening to silence puts at bay the things i worry about, my friendships, my finances, my work, my life-plans, all the crazy things that hurts my brain, bogs me down and makes me want to cry. Peace and quiet is reflective and allows me the chance to rest, puts my mind at ease and i can choose to focus on nothing in particular, becoming mindless or i can be still and focus on God - the latter being more important to me.