Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, I have been known to say, "I just need to go sit on a rock in the desert," or "I need to go stare at the ocean."
I've never seen a desert, but I imagine them to be free of human-generated noise. I know the ocean is.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed by stress and work and deadlines—the usual stuff. But sometimes it's just noise that gets to me—the noise that comes at all of us from living in a 24/7 world.
This morning, I stepped onto the porch of the Story Shack just as the sunrise was starting to paint a little corner of the sky with soft pinks and corals. But already, noise was creeping in—visual and audible—from my neighbors’ bright outdoor lights and distant traffic on a main highway not too far from here.
I decided to come back inside and take refuge in the Shack, which Dave wisely soundproofed after growing weary of hearing me constantly complain about every little distraction before I had my own space. With all the noise weeded out, I could fully appreciate the colorful show in the sky.
The older I get, the more I feel a (sometimes desperate) need to weed. There’s just too much coming at us—too much noise, too much information, too much unnecessary human-generated conflict. It’s easy to lose your focus.
And the older I get, the more often I return to this passage from Philippians:
Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report;
if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise,
think on these things.
Philippians 4:8
Striving to focus on the true, the honest, the just, the pure, the lovely . . . .
[Image by Jack Moreh @ Freerangestock.com]
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