Listen to the sound of... Silence

In this day and age it's so hard to find peace and quiet. I am a mother of one and I crave silence. When it's nap time I want so badly just to do nothing and hear nothing. But as I sit and contemplate or meditate, I hear a police siren or the heater kicking in. I listen to the refrigerator humming or the traffic going by outside. I am sadly in need of silence in my life. I have so much going on in my house and in my own head that it's so hard to find the solace I so long for. When nap time is finished it will be several more hours before the little one is back asleep and I can escape into the quiet once again.

Why do we need to have TVs and radio's and MP3's or IPod's on ALL the time?

I got up in the early morning hours the other day with my husband. He was leaving for a trip and I had to use the restroom. Outside I could hear the sounds of the birds in the trees. They were alerting us that daylight wasn't too far off. This morning I spent time trekking through the snow after two Canadian Geese as they joined the flock of their brother's and sister's. It was peaceful. I heard them talking and you could hear their feet crunch on the new fallen snow. I got to stand and listen to the snow falling on the trees. I watched as the snow got too heavy for the branch and it plopped to the ground. I heard the little waterfall and listened as the ducks talked to each other.

Silence is so under-rated. It's the time when we find out about ourselves. We learn how comfortable we can be in our own skin. We can use this time to talk to God or just be still. I wish each of us time that we can be silent and see what we can learn about ourselves.

The "s" word

No... not the one your thinking of. My word is "skiing". I think if I go skiing ever again it will be too soon. I have a long history of skiing too, that's why it's interesting that I have such a distaste for it now. The first time I ever traversed the slopes was back in high school. Went with the church to Seven Springs Ski Resort in Pennsylvania. I loved it. I had found my one true love, whooshing down the hills, laughing at others as they fell, and watching my brother learn how to ski.

Next I went while I was in college to the Ober Gatlinburg ski area. That wasn't so bad; did pretty well, a little more advanced then Pennsylvania.

Next I went with the youth group at the church the hubby was serving in. We went to Virginia the first year then West Virginia the second year. I got a little testy these times. The hubby loves to hurl himself down the slopes at breakneck speeds and curses anyone that holds him back. I'm starting to get more cautious. Starting to think about how easy it is to fall and break something or worse yet, fall off the ski lift. We saw someone minutes after he fell off the lift some 12-13 feet off the ground. He wasn't moving. So of course your mind starts working in overtime. Hubby still isn't patient when it comes to how slow I am. Once I take a break he races off to try and get in as much as he can before he has to endure more torture of skiing with his wife. I'm really not that bad, just cautious.

It's been five years since my last episode. I thought I could pick up right where I left off. Hubby has promised to remain patient and stick with me the whole way. My first mistake was going on a Friday and then returning on a Sunday. Can we say nuts? My poor legs were still in recovery on Sunday. You know it's not going to be a good day when on your first ride up the mountain you fail to get off the ski lift at the top and then have to hop off at the last second and land hard on your butt after falling 2 1/2 feet to the ground. The lift operator has to stop the lift so the next people don't plow over you. Luckily the ski's stay on. I survive the mountain and make it to the bottom in one piece... almost. At the bottom they throw in this trick where you have to perform this "s" turn (see there it is again) to get off the hill. Well I see it and start wondering how am I going to make this? Well I'm heading for the ropes and I try to make myself fall to avoid the rope. I do fall and I leave my arm 4 feet behind me. As I feel my arm tearing from my shoulder all I can think is... "I BROKE MY ARM!!" I've got people running in from places you never dreamed.. actually the lift guy just came to check on me. The hubby comes in for a landing behind me and helps me back up. Can we say BREAK!!!! But no I'm determined to make hubby happy and prove to myself that I can do this. So I go up again. This time nothing happens, praise the Lord!! So then it's lunch.

After lunch hubby brainwashes me into tackling the higher up lift. "It's easy," he says. "We'll take the greens the whole way." You bet your sweet bippy we'll take the greens! So up we go. And up. And up. And up. And up. Mountains are big here in Montana. We finally arrive at the top only to be slowed down because someone wants a picture. Do I care about the picture??? NO!!! I just want off the mountain. Get me to the bottom! So finally off we go! Before we hit the first turn I'm off my feet. No one told me I would be taking a 180 degree turn up here. As we get mid way it starts to snow. Never before have I been on a mountain skiing and it snow. It was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Until it gets so heavy that you can't see where you're going. I fell again. Hubby wants me to walk all the way to the bottom... are you KIDDING me? That's worse then skiing. So I make it to the bottom. Only to be dumped and left for dead... well not quite. Hubby takes off to go tackle some far off corner of the earth and find new ways to hurtle himself down a hill at god'awful speeds.

He can have it.