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Tag: restorative

  • The Importance of Silence

    The Importance of Silence

    Packing my bag for a recent camping holiday, I made a decision not to bring or download novels.  Whilst I absolutely love to read and desperately needed to relax, I also was missing being creative.  I hadn’t blogged in ages and wanted to produce something myself rather than read something someone else had created. 

    So instead of packing my Kindle, I packed journals and pencils.  I also took my Bible as a book, rather than reading the app on my phone.  The island we camped on is remote and wi-fi free; and most times mobile coverage free. For ten days, I was technology free and not connected to the random visual and audio kaleidoscope from my phone that usually distracts me.  It was amazing! 

    Now, less you think we are too good, the temptation did remain to be connected to our devices.  I did dig out a few reference books on my kindle app and certain other family members still found games to play on their devices.  For the most part though, when we were not active on or around this amazing section of the Great Barrier Reef, we were playing cards or games as a family.  Or resting. 

    I did not realise how tired my body and mind were until I slowed down.  There were no emails to read or to respond to, nor housework or yard work to do.  There was no rushing and no agenda. Just time to rest and relax.   How absolutely wonderful and restorative.

    The first thing I did when I returned home was to revisit my habits.  My first priority was to buy a bedside alarm clock and charge my phone in my office overnight.  I have stopped reading novels for now and have used this time to write in a journal, in order to unpack the complex emotions and thoughts that almost assault me everyday in just living and working in this modern world.  This helps to clear my mind enough so I can explore something more creative and life giving- and to sleep better at night. I have a little giggle to myself when a thought crosses my mind and I automatically reach out to “google-it” on a phone no longer there. I have also removed my work email app from my mobile.

    Secondly, I am trying to break my habit of efficiency.  Dr Susan Biali Haas in her article “Slow Down to Wake Up Your Life” reminded me that like her, I too had been rushing through my life with pressured, driven detachment.  I want to pull myself out of the habit of connecting superficially with my life and instead connect with it deeply.  As she puts it so well “instead of spending all your time scrambling up and down the superficial scaffolding of ‘to-do’s’ and distractions, you get reminded of what counts.”  For me, that is reconnecting with my heart and with God’s heart.  I can do this reasonably well on the weekend, but I am seriously finding this difficult during the week, as a high school teacher in a demanding school.

    As an introvert, I have known for a long time that solitude recharges me. I have missed that and am grateful that my holiday reminded me of its importance.  Slowing down, breathing, not reaching for my mobile phone and rediscovering small moments of solitude in my weekdays is new habit I am determined to develop.     Richard Foster in his book “Celebration of Disciplines” says silence goes hand in hand with solitude.  For someone who loves words, it is quite a challenge to consider one of his recommendations – to spend a day or part of a day without speaking to anyone. 

    While I was rediscovering the importance of silence, a girlfriend of mine stumbled on hers overseas.  She spent a day alone on a remote mountain top, while the mist rolled in.  In that short amount of time, she was inspired to fill a page with the titles of articles and chapters she will now write. 

    The words of James Altucher ring true, “Out of silence comes the greatest creativity. Not when we are rushing and panicking.” 

    But silence is more than the absence of speaking and going technology free.  As one desert father is quoted as saying “…There is silence of the tongue, there is silence of the whole body, there is silence of the soul, there is silence of the mind, and there is silence of the spirit.”   

    That sounds like being still, that the Bible talks about. (Psalm 46:10 and 37:7)  Boy, that’s hard in this crazy busy, 24/7 technology day and age. But I think I’m finally learning the importance of silence and I’m clawing it back, one habit at a time. 

  • The importance of the pause

    The importance of the pause

    I have been silent for the last couple of weeks.  I have struggled to find the mental capacity for creative thoughts. Some days after work I do not feel like speaking. When I start writing I struggle to string together a coherent sentence let alone a creative one.  For those close to me, it is hard to believe that I have run out of words.  Perhaps the words are there but I have needed to pause for a moment. Self-care has become a priority.  

    When I stop thinking and planning long enough, I begin to feel. And when I allow myself to feel, that feels like grief. I have been sad for all the fractured lives I encounter during my working week.  Sad for the fact I cannot possibly do enough to help everyone I meet. I am sad too, because my own life as a teen parallels some of the lives of the teens I hang out with.  Memories I have chosen to ignore or were locked away have come trickling back, mixed with delayed grief and sobering realisations.  I cry for another time and I cry for now.  I cry for others and I cry for me. 

    Some days I just want to hide away and live a quiet life. I have even thought about quitting being a grown up and go back to being a kid. Then I read quotes like this one; “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. “(attributed to the Talmud)

    And so, I work out, I run, I rest, I read, I take care of myself, I pray and draw strength from the God I follow.  There is so much work to do, that there is not enough of me or the week to finish it all.  Rather than abandon it all together, I do what I can, and ask the Lord to multiply all that I can humanly offer.  If he could multiply loaves and fishes to feed the hungry, why can’t he multiply the little I offer to help others? 

    Self-care often feels selfish.  But as Eleanor Brown says “Self-care is not selfish. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”  If I am going to keep running the race set before me, I need to ensure I have something to give at the beginning of each working week. It is important to pause.

    Photo by Jess Watters on Unsplash

  • Restoring my soul

    Restoring my soul

    The past five days I have wandered through the highways and byways; past the rivers and streams of the southland of New Zealand’s South Island.  I travelled with my husband, who is a keen fisherman; so much of our sojourn revolved around trout streams, always in silence and often separate and alone.

    I was like a kid in a candy store, trying to choose the best scene to photograph.  Almost every turn in the road greeted us with another breathtaking view.  That’s a funny term ‘breath taking’!  But, you do take a long deep breath as if drawing in the beauty and the magnificence of the sight in front of you.  It helps when the air is so pure. (Although in my husband’s case the grass seed has been playing havoc with his hay fever and allergies.)

    There is something deeply restorative about wandering in nature.  Richard Ryan, an author of a study in the benefits of nature wrote ‘nature is food for the soul’ and is good for our psychological and physiological states.   I can testify to that this week and I believe some of the photographs I have shared have evoked a similar response in others. 

    Visiting the lakes, the rivers, the forests and the mountains of New Zealand evoked a sense of awe and wonder. Some moments I found myself responding with a song of worship about God’s majesty.  This is His creation and glorious handiwork.  He is the Creator of this majestic creation that we call nature. 

    Yesterday, I was stopped in my tracks along a path when I heard the most unusual bird call.  Alongside of me and perched in a shrub was a warbling Tui, a New Zealand bird with the most unique bird call.  I stood for minutes in wonder as the bird repeated his song as if especially for me.

    ‘By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power…and the mystery of his divine being.” (Romans 1: 20 MSG).  Terms like magnificent, majestic, awesome, breathtaking, wondrous, amazing are words that only touch on that divine mystery and eternal power behind the creation of nature. 

    John Muir, the Scottish born American naturalist recommends a week in the woods or mountains to wash your spirit clean.  He also said “Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.  All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. (John Muir, July 1888) 

    As I write this, I am in a Queenstown motel with a downtown full of hustle and bustle where tourists hang out. A place with dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. And while I am still looking out over a beautiful mountain and lake, it is not the same as the quietness of the places where I have just come from. I miss the encounter with the divine reflected in the majesty of the natural world.  I am hungry for more food for my soul.  Perhaps next time, I will be brave to wander alone on one of those well marked New Zealand wilderness trails and leave some more of my baggage behind.