A Circle of Quiet

My old blog What a Life sort of died when I joined Facebook. When my kids did cute things, I shared them on Facebook rather than in a blog post. The response was bigger and instantaneous. So Facebook has been my main mode of online sharing for several years now.

But times have changed. I have other things to say. And I’ve long pondered bringing back the blog.

Three school-aged children in a household make for a whirlwind of activity. Scouts, choir, music lessons, and 4-H projects to say nothing of homeschooling keep me in a tailspin. So what I long for most right now is a circle of quiet.

Just a small one. A few precious moments when I can have my own thoughts and not be interrupted. Which is why I so loved Madeline L’Engle’s A Circle of Quiet when I read it several years ago. Some people practice deep breathing, others practice yoga – just the sight of that book on my shelf calms me. Finding my own circle of quiet has become my lifeline.

So I carve out time in the early morning hours to read. My evenings at home are devoted to quiet reading time rather than surfing the web. I snatch moments here and there throughout the day when I can read. And think. And reflect.

I take walks. On the streets of our small town. On gravel roads at the edges of our town. On local trails. At Spring Creek Prairie (scene of the cover photo for this blog). I soak in the sunshine and quietly watch the seasons as they change.

Now I’m restarting my little garden of thoughts here on a new blog with a new name. I’ve brought with me my posts from the past year about what I read each month – posts which have been the seed for this new blog.

And I have hope that this blog will be about more than just what I’ve been reading. That it will be a place for thought and reflection as well.

Yes, my own little circle of quiet.