You may have been hoping for the ebook on revisions that I hinted at over a month ago.
This isn't it.
You may have been waiting for a themed email (about editing or writing) or wondering if I was still writing at all.
This isn't it.
Or you may, like me, be noticing the waves of spring but have worked through winter so hard that you can't quite muster the energy to welcome the flowers and sun, even if it is still cold, windy, and rainy many days.
I got knocked over today by quiet.
It's something I have been hearing about, this genuine need for silence on a regular basis.
I hear it restores.
Silence was the subject of a class I'm taking with a group of friends each week, and we all confess that being silent on purpose is harder than we thought it would be.
I hear it refreshes.
When I got knocked down by it today, I had just spent a relatively lovely afternoon out with my kids and some friends of ours on our first official day of Spring Break. In a garden. With the sun beating down. And bees and pollen and a smattering of kids running in circles. (And one very tired teenager who came along anyway.)
So as you can imagine, I was taken aback when we got home and it felt like I had just run a marathon. (I ran one once and said that was enough, thank you, and I don't plan to run anymore.)
I went to “lay down,” and two and a half hours later, I woke up to a husband home from work and kids doing some cleanup in their rooms. “What Alice-in-Wonderland world have I woken up into?” I wondered.
But as I walked through our small apartment, and realized it was dinner time and nothing had been prepared, I was okay.
The silence pulled up a chair and sat with me as I watched the nothing going on around me. It was a welcome return in an overly busy season of work.
I hear silence befriends.
So when I finally looked up and asked my family what we should do for dinner, my husband offered to whip something up and even got a friendly kindness competition going between our kids. (Ice cream from Publix was the prize.)
So I'm here to tell you that when you suddenly get rocked by a need to close out the world, or you feel it climbing up slowly, let it.
This isn't the email with tips or a promise of revision help. (Though I do plan to finish that soon.)
But it is the one where I am trying to practice in real life what I hear is good for me: rhythms. Silence. Doing. Resting. Stillness. Silence. Doing. Fun. Resting. Stillness.
Repeat.
May this come to your inbox at just the right time. When the flowers are starting to bloom and the playfulness of summer hasn't arrived just yet.
When your brain or your body or your writingest self just needs to be ok with a blank page and a break.
When Quiet Knocks
When you get rocked, let it happen. - YES!
This is beautiful, Brooke. ❤️