Meditation. Quiet. Prayer. No matter how much we want to make time in our days for any of these, it always seems like the last thing to be checked off the to-do list. Everything else is so much more pressing! I was just reading a book by David L. Goetz called “Death by Suburb”, which I thought was going to be a hilarious social commentary about suburban living. It turns out it’s more about finding God in the midst of the chaos and pressures of daily life. Not what I had been looking for, but he’s got a lot of good ideas and I liked a couple things he said about finding quiet time amidst a lengthy to-do list…
“For spiritual development and entrance into the thicker, more reflective life, solitude is more inside space than it is outside space. Solitude isn’t something to consume, like a summer vacation at Lake Tahoe. The answer to finding solitude isn’t to physically flee the suburbs and move farther west to another plain-vanilla subdivision next to a cornfield. It begins incrementally with the practice of becoming still. For a minute, for two minutes, for five minutes — not necessarily in beholding a snowcapped mountain peak, but simply in stopping the pursuit of efficiency…
“It may be as simple as getting up earlier each morning or buying a decent pair of ear plugs, but creating space is as necessary as setting up a line item for Christmas gifts in one’s personal budget through the year… Without a line time for quietness, the days get used up carpooling, working on another degree, making partner in the firm, planning yet another birthday party. “
I was with him till the “stopping the pursuit of efficiency” part — it’s hard for me not to try to be efficient. Even scheduling quiet time becomes an exercise in efficiency — setting the timer, scheduling it at the right time. But I guess that’s better than not doing it at all. I think I’ll add “Quiet Time” to my Daily Bucket List (the handful of things I want to try to do every day). Maybe if I do it enough, it will be come part of the routine. And I even get to “check it off”!
5 places to find 10 minutes of quiet:
- First thing in the morning
- Arriving somewhere early
- The beginning of kids’ nap time (because you never know when it will end)
- Hiding in the bathroom (most people won’t bother you there)
- Before school pickup (it may be the last “quiet” of the day)
Are you able to find quiet time during the day? Where? Are you able to stop doing to-do lists in your head during your quiet time? (That, to me, will be real success.)
