embracing the silence

I feel like my life lately has been all about lists.  Not necessarily to do lists that I write down and check things off of, but just a steady flow of “things” that I do every day.  We were at dinner last week at friends house, and my phone alarm at 6pm went off.  “Ah, that’s what happened” I said to myself as I realized why my alarm didn’t go off that morning.  My friend, Will, says “what in the world do you DO at 6 am?”  Truth be told, I am a snooze-r.  It typically takes me 30 minutes to get outta bed after my alarm first goes off.  But I am actually starting to like getting up early.  No, I don’t physically like getting up, but I love the results it brings.  I love being able to get dressed, make the bed, make my pot of coffee, water the plants, turn on the lamps and pour that first cup of steaming hot coffee and sit with my bible open on the front porch.  When I do these things, my day seems to go much smoother than when I wake up to the kids banging on their cribs down the hall.

So many times though, when I wake up it’s all about what I can accomplish.  It seems to be worse when I don’t have a ton of stuff on my plate – that means I make stuff up.  I’m always try to stay “caught up” on dishes, laundry, cleaning, emails, messages…. but I realized something this week.  I will never be caught up.

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do you feel the same way?

even if I get “caught up”, there will always be more laundry to do, more dishes to clean and more emails that need responses.  so why do I try so hard to “keep up?”  I think it’s my way of avoiding the silence.

I read this enlightening post by Mike Foster on the Storyline blog recently that said this,

“Quietness and being alone with our thoughts can be scary. We need a little something extra to drown out the silence.

The noise is often just a Band-Aid to pain. The low hum helps us from facing the deeper parts of our story. The incomprehensible chatter in the background fills the lonely space.

At the core, noise is escapism, yet it keeps us from being free. 

He goes on to challenge us to stick around with the silence.  To allow ourselves to sit with the hurts, grieve what is lost and allow our thoughts to move to the deeper “unexplored” parts of our story.  I want to take that challenge.  I’ve taken it before, and it’s hard y’all.  Living in that silence, alone with your thoughts, but I miss it.  I want it.  I want to grieve my losses well, I want to explore the parts of my story that are hard to look at, I want to have time to reflect and write and journal.

That’s where I am right now.  Wanting to turn the laptop off at night, and be still and be quiet.  Wanting to leave my phone in the house when I go in the backyard to play with the kids.  Wanting to embrace the silence, and see what song of freedom God might be singing over me.

I’ll leave you with these words from Mike,

“I believe on the other side of our discomfort with silence is a symphony of new sounds waiting to be discovered. It might be where you discover a new truth of who you are and a song of freedom that you’ve been waiting to hear.”

 

Hey, I'm Wynne!

Hi, friend! First, I truly am so giddy that you are here. I want you to know I believe in you and all the ways you are growing towards living a more intentional life.  I genuinely hope you are encouraged from our time together here.

A little about me, I’m a type 7 on the enneagram, a total extrovert + people lover, entrepreneur, connector, storyteller, people gatherer, and passionate wife, mama + friend. I feel most alive when I’m exploring new places and surrounded by people I love. Give me a day in the outdoors disconnected from wifi, and I am a happy girl. I run on oat milk lattes, Jesus, gratitude journaling and kitchen dance parties with my four kids.
Welcome, come on in!

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  1. Laura Loewen says:

    Yes. A million times, yes. Silence can be hard, and yet so refreshing. Isn’t it somewhat ironic that we try to block out the very moments in which God will speak to us? Makes me sad, yet I know that as a culture we are so conditioned for noise. I tell you what, girl, there was a day that I left my phone inside while playing with the kids and felt so. much. freedom!! Silly (and maybe lame) as it sounds, it was like the leash was broken and I was free just to be PRESENT. Love it. Love you. Just. Yes.

  2. Chantel Klassen says:

    <3 I enjoy the silence but too find that I can get lost in trying to keep myself busy. Thanks for this wonderful reminder Wynne!

  3. Melanie Morriss Tkach says:

    Thank you for writing on this topic and incorporating such powerful quotes from Mike Foster. Silence is one of my biggest struggles because my mind is often times a spiritual battleground. As a result, I busy myself…My personal challenge as of late has been to listen for God’s voice amongst the busyness. Your post is such a good reminder to be still.

  4. Lindsy Wallace says:

    Yes. I’m filling my silence right now with Facebook and blog reading. There’s so much going in and I’m just drowning it with filler. I want so badly to sit in the silence but something is keeping me from it. Time to figure out what that something is. Thank you for the timely post friend!

  5. Kathryn Perry Shirey says:

    Love this! Learning stillness and letting go of my to-do list seems to be my theme this week.

  6. Melissa Blair says:

    (sorry about all the comments…I’m catching up and stalking you this morning ;))….Okay…This. This speaks to me all day, every day. My bent is to fidget. To squirm. To move…this year I’ve been very intentional about being anchored in this moment and not using distraction (social media and even books sometimes) to keep me from spending time with myself and talking to God and really listening and processing…and, girl, it is still as difficult most days. Funny…I’ve just been thinking about this a lot. It’s like standing still in a river of rushing water, isn’t it?
    But so.worth.the.effort. Thank you for using your good words for good stuff to think about.
    I say it every time because I mean it…I love you.

  7. Sarah Pikop says:

    I am definitely fighting silence with distraction! And I am definitely beginning to see how I really need to spend that time in silence – mourning what bugs me about me, crying stuff out, giving it to God, and not trying to stuff it down with more of the same harmful, ineffective stuff! Thanks for this confirming post!

  8. Beautiful, beautiful post. 🙂

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