Savoring The Quiet as a Parent

Time to reflect doesn’t come easily when you have kiddos. Just like everything when you have kids, you find ways to do things more efficiently, steal moments, savor the stillness of silence when you get it. I sometimes think that the noisiness that comes with parenting has made me better at sinking into quiet more quickly when I find it than I ever did before kids...like a giant blanket covering me, I sink in and use the time wisely.

I’m not sure I cared as much for this before kids. I did plenty of meditation/prayer and definitely enjoyed my alone time. Hours for me. Now, it’s more like minutes and feels like a fine wine...sip slowly, even if for fleeting seconds. Nothing about it is taken for granted and I part ways like I’m leaving a dear old friend.

There is guilt at times in this admission. I love my children, I savor them, too. It’s okay to break from the noise, say no to other things that require chatter...and fill up your soul. It is a vessel, after all. In an old journal when I had too much time for only me, I struggled with the loneliness that comes from silence. I tried to make peace with it and wrote about what I was learning. Those words still apply.

“Where there is reflection, there is light.