Peace and Quiet

I picked up my copy of The 9 Rights of Every Writer: A Guide for Teachers last night. I read part of The Right to Be Reflective. The writer spoke of time spent at the Boundary Waters (“chains of deep, startlingly clear lakes stretch from the arrowhead country of Minnesota so far to the north you cannot navigate them all within your lifetime.”)

I stopped on the paragraph below. It gives new meaning to the phrase peace and quiet.

Adrift on the lake, floating at the whim of the waves — this is how freedom feels. This is how it feels to be away. Nothing rings, beeps, buzzes, flashes, or blinks. The mind takes in one image at a time and holds on, sometimes forever. The heartbeat slows. It is a place I visit in my mind, and I am there even, now, I feel the rock of the kayak as I write this. . . . –Vicki Spandel, The 9 Rights of Every Writer

That paragraph stopped me. I did the same thing. I took a moment to visit the grand old white oak on the riverbank at the far end of the backyard where I grew up. Doing that was more refreshing than taking a nap, more satisfying than so many other things I might have done.

What I felt was peace inside the quiet.

Even writing about it now takes me back by the river where I grew up, and I feel the same sense of peace again. It’s access to energy and direction. How easy it can be to turn off the noise to find the peace inside the quiet.

We can change the world — just like that.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

______________
If you’re ready to change the world, send me your thoughts in a guest post. Feel free to take the gorgeous Change the World image up there that Sandy designed back to your blog. Or help yourself to this one.

Email me about what you’re doing or what we might do. Let’s change the world one bit at a time together. Together it can’t take forever.