Good Silence
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and one of the busiest. Of course, there are the holidays, which line up together in close succession so it seems impossible to grasp one before it slips through your hands and the next one is upon you. In my family, there are some additional celebrations that cause there to be even less breathing room between events: my husband’s birthday, my birthday, and our anniversary all fall within a period of time from less than a week before Thanksgiving to less than a week before Christmas. Life can quickly feel hectic instead of joyful at this time of year.
For a week or so I have noticed myself making “to-do” lists in my mind any time there’s a moment of silence (when my two-year-old is not asking me “why?”), and even in the midst of conversations. Perhaps this busyness in my brain is the reason a small passage from The Young Unicorns by Madeleine L’Engle resonates with me so strongly. Along with L’Engle’s character, I “underst[and] silence, that good silence comes from inside, not outside, and that little, unimportant things can break it more easily than the big ones.”
I understand that inner silence, akin to peace, cannot easily be broken by things like “buses and taxi horns and ambulance sirens” (L’Engle), “big” sounds, but I let those insignificant things like worry about the meal plan or whether or not I have time to finish making a Christmas tree skirt or answering my daughter’s twelfth “why” of the day barge in and destroy my mind’s silence, “break[ing] it up into noise” (L’Engle).
Those insignificant things should not have the power to ruin the silence, the peace and joy, that can run through each day and color it with brilliance. In the end, we’ll eat. Decorations come and go. My daughter is a person going through a stage of learning, and I can help her through it. My perspective on our circumstances will affect my approach more than the circumstances themselves, so why shouldn’t my perspective be one of contented peace? Paul says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Meditating on such a promise, founded in the truth of a good and sovereign God, my mind and heart can be at peace, resting in good silence, this season.
