Make Time for Silence
Our leaders national and local scream for our attention. It is hard to escape the sound of the media around us. Parents will attend to the cries of their children. That might mean a baby in need of a diaper, or a teen shouting for attention because they are insecure.
Who can honestly tell me that they make their best decisions surrounded by noise?
Even with an 8-month-old son in our home, my wife made the space for me to go on a weekend retreat. I had spent the weekend from Friday evening until Sunday morning at Bethlehem Hermitages in Chester, New Jersey (Click for more info).
As a person of faith, I needed space for prayer. I took part in communal prayer, and private prayer in a chapel, but a majority of the time was spent alone, in silence, and in the wilderness.
That is all I am going to say about faith or religion in this article.
You don't need to be driven by faith to seek out quiet. Perhaps you are an inventor constantly on deadlines, maybe you are a writer who has hit a brick wall. Could it be that you are a salesperson who's pitch doesn't work anymore?
When we seek out silence and commune with nature, we may find God, but you know who else we can find? Ourselves! Perhaps with space, we come up with a new idea. With a break, we can regroup and reframe how we relate to others. In the silence, we are making space for ideas that we might not have thought of in the din of daily life.
If this resonates with you I'll make a suggestion. Find a retreat house, a mountain cabin, a luxury hotel room. Book the time for yourself as a gift for discovery. If you practice faith bring your Bible, Koran, Torah, whatever text it might be. You aren't practicing anything? Bring a book about new ideas!
Take the time to find silence, and explore new ideas. Use that vacation time you would have left on the table, and find new motivation.