WENDY DEWAR HUGHES
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Finding Quiet

When I set out to create a daily journal I thought it would be easy. I’d sit down each morning at my computer and dash off a little something about whatever is happening with me, and hope that  someone out in the world who is searching for something lands at my website and finds it useful or interesting.
 
As with many things, the doing has been more challenging than I expected. I imagine that this is a metaphor for most of our lives. I want to spend quiet time each day, stopping the busyness, and hushing the whirr of demands, but day after day goes by and that time doesn’t happen.
 
The mornings begin with the telephone ringing or a deadline looming. The others in the house demand attention or there is a plan to go somewhere, and that sweet silent morning break gets pushed aside for the noisier demands of the day.
Woman lying on green field with marguerite daisy in her teeth.
Watercolor art with roses, daisies and vines.
So how do we manage to take the time we need to be quiet, to really relax, to pray or meditate, or to just read or write for a few minutes?

Obviously, I’m no authority on this or I would be doing it everyday. I have no children at home, no dog, no job to rush off to by a certain time (for which I thank God—the job, not the kids or dog). But I do run a business, and sometimes that can be more demanding than all the others put together.

So here is what I do when my brain is so full and so busy that I am beginning to feel fractured and scattered in a hundred places. Around four o’clock in the afternoon, just when I start to feel draggy and a bit hungry, I stop what I’m doing and make myself a cup of tea. Then I take it to the wicker settee in the corner of my living room, under the palm tree.

Sometimes I read a book for a while, and sometimes I just look out the window and think. Sometimes I write in my journal or pray, talking to God about my day, my plans, or my frustrations, or about my friends and family who need help just now.
This bit of time, perhaps twenty minutes or a half hour, calms my soul again. For a little while I can put aside the demands of business and maintaining daily life and rise above the din of it all. Those minutes help me be clear about what I am doing and why I am doing it.

I am trying to take a few minutes in the morning before I launch into my busy day, to write something down. My hope is that what I write will touch someone who needs to read it, at the moment she needs to read it; that my experiences and how I deal with issues in my life will resonate with someone who needs to know that she is not the only one struggling.
Lemon-shaped teapot, lemon tea, and bowl of lemons and limes, with pitcher of flowers by window.
I know I’m not the only one who has trouble finding a quiet space in my days to just be still for a few minutes, to collect my scattered thoughts and to sit in silence even listening to my own heartbeat. But I encourage you, like me, to keep trying to find those minutes. Those times of peace hold our lives together.
Watercolour garland of red daisies by Wendy Dewar Hughes.
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Copyright 2016 Wendy Dewar Hughes. All Rights Reserved.
  • Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Make It
    • Inspiration >
      • Be Happier and More Creative in Three Easy Steps
      • Take Time to Get Away
      • Eat Chocolate for Breakfast
      • There is Always Time
      • How I Became an Artist
      • Make it Pretty Quickly
      • Use the Good Things
      • Finding Quiet
      • Do You Have the Nerve?
    • Turn Your Vacation into a Creative Retreat
    • Sketchbook Tour
    • Artistic DIY Envelopes
    • Everywhere Designs and Patterns
    • Decorating with Seashells
    • Creative Spaces in My House
    • Creative Business
    • Lesson Library >
      • Lesson List >
        • Sketch Rome Travel Journal
  • About
    • My Books
    • Sketches from the South of France
    • About Me >
      • My Licenses
      • Readers' Comments
      • Contact