Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The little red bench


"If I sit for a while, then my impatience, crossness, frustration, are indeed annihilated, and my sense of humor returns." ~ Madeleine L'Engle

With the passing of each year, I have waved farewell to a bit more of my extroverted self. Perhaps with five children and a communicative husband, it is more that my extroversion is now used up in the privacy of my own home. But even at home, amidst these interesting and complex individuals, I find the need to break away for some daily quiet. We have a small house, so over the years I have sat on the broken steps in the garden, leaned back in a camping chair in the corner of the driveway under the inky night sky, or grabbed my camera and tromped in the woods to find new foliage to photograph all.by.myself.

Now I have the perfect spot, just outside my bright red front door. In my search through thrift stores, I came upon a little bench. A little red bench. I walked up as the proprieter unloaded it out of his pick-up truck, and I knew right where I would put it. On the front door deck, by the ivy, and I could even picture it with garden boots or camo helmets tucked underneath.

With a view of the sunset at night, or the glow on the valley across the way in the morning, it is my place to sit and be quiet. You see, if I don't find time to be quiet, my life no longer makes sense, and the noise around me builds to a cacophony. I need to sort out my thoughts, to regain my purpose in order to live an intentional life. I might read or pray or think, but sometimes I need to rest first. Like dirt settling in a glass of water, the clutter in my mind sinks and things begin to clear. Then the prayers of my heart can rise, and I can return to the busy life inside the red door.

"The shadows are deepening all around us. Now is the time when we must begin to see our world and ourselves in a different way." Madeleine L'Engle

My little red bench is where I begin to see in a different way.


A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle

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