Reasons to Celebrate

The Experience of Peacefulness

Daily I make the trek to my third floor office. There is a small chapel here now. Created in the space with a dormer window…the bench below it began to remind me of a church pew. Then a dear friend gifted me with a cross, just as I started imagining a cross in the point above the window which faces east. This is the place I like to meditate, on my mat before the cross.

As I spend more time with my writing other parts of my life seem to be flowing more elegantly. I have always preferred having large chunks of alone time. Or at least what seems like alone time from the outside. From my vantage point, in these moments I am being nurtured by the loving presence of God. This time is what gives the world outside meaning, this time of waiting and listening for His voice.

Life pulsates around me…the squirrels are chasing one another and jumping from branch to branch as the wind gently rustles the trees outside the windows of my office. I have read that one should not write in a place that they do other work. Yet I do.

It is here that I give webinars, it is here that I answer customer support calls, write emails, brainstorm on marketing pieces, participate in conference calls and work on keeping our database current.

This room has had many uses over the years as a guest room, as a game room and as a gathering room for teenagers to watch tv away from the prying eye of the adults in the house. There is a brick paved porch overlooking a small lake outside the French doors. I walk out there to breathe, to stretch and to take in the life all around me that is oblivious to who’s right and who’s wrong, or this deadline or that appointment it just goes about the joy of living.

Sometimes I miss this world which is a strange way to feel while I am here. But still there are times I hear a sound and realize that these sounds won’t be a part of what we experience next. I will not argue with the great mystery nor will I fear it. Instead I pay attention to experience the moment at hand so that I don’t miss it, if it makes a difference later on or not I won’t pretend to know. It matters to me now.

This center of peace is felt throughout my home. I remember once overhearing my son tell my daughter that she will miss the peacefulness of home when she goes away to college. Then recently she came home for the night because she missed the quiet. This is precious to me. It is the prayerful cover that permeates this place, the loving attention that they notice, that nourishes their Soul. For this I am grateful.

“The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

-        Philippians 4:9