An Escape Route: Quiet Time

 

You already heard it couple of times, “The mind is willing but the body is weak.”    Here I’m not explaining about it.  It’s just a phrase, for many.

Birds sitting in a branch

There is an old Mango tree nearby.  Birds resting on its branches are a common sight.  I envy them a lot.  Straight to my window was their resting place.  When they are in chirping mood, it was a pleasant sight.  More than that, they take rest in the branches from the scorching heat of the sun in noontime.  They did not make noise nor do they disturb one another.  They are observing quiet time, I would say.  I’d love to join them.

I love loud music.  The louder it became the more I enjoyed.  But that was in the past.  After a series of hospital visits and the surgical procedure followed by medication, life is different.  My tolerance level changes.  Many times I would like to elude myself from the noisy atmosphere of the metropolitan city, where I lived now.  The melodious sound of the past became a loud noise in the ear.

After years of treatment, the body metabolism changes, this kept troubling normal life.   It was refreshing to tune into soulful songs at times.  The world now is full of innovative things for better living and enjoyment for the dwellers.  Noise was much contained than earlier.   Every small device produced noise, as it makes the owner kept excited.

With children, you need to talk and laugh more than being with adult person.  Being at home, I spent most of my time with our children, and I love it.  We fought hard to live up to each other’s expectations.  We needed to play and dance to keep them engaged and happy.  It keeps me active and alert.

In my younger days, I spent my time in the village, the country-side.  There, we hardly had good sound devices.  We were roaming in the quiet forest.  Back then, we talked about life in Metro Cities with great excitement.

Now all things has changed.  If there is a Bible and good books to read, I would want to escape in quiet place alone.  But that was not possible at all.  I’d love listening to the voice of God in the quietness of time.  There are so many things that stole our thinking and time.  May be that’s why quiet time was more important.

But quiet time alone, without God will serve no purpose.  We are blessed to have God who is always with us, in sickness and in health!

Related read: Stay Connected: Precautions

Special Time; Story Time at Home

Story time at home

It was mostly quiet at this time of the day.  For most of the city slickers, it is time to take rest just after having their lunch.  My children were done with their assigned work.  It was calm, and the wind was lazy, just before taking their noon time nap, it was story time for us.

“Papa, tell us a story,” they demanded .  Our special time is about to begin.

They would settle down into their favorite place, or should I say, ‘our story place’ of the house facing the trees.  I’d gather them around my arms and hold them together to narrate stories, which I hope would have morals in their life.  I have the chance to pick the genre of stories, but not always.

For a Dad, who was no more working, it was always special to be able to spend precious time with my children.  Most of the time, stories told by my Dad and Granddad, in my younger days were retold.  It was a time to inculcate knowledge about the reality of life to the young minds.

Relatively important topics like; why people die? Why is my sister a female? Why not all humans are male? and the likes, were covered in these times.  It was always a special moment in a day.

Why did Mommy need to work?  This needed to be answered many times.  Most of the times, my kids get emotional, and, I feel, draw closer to me.  But what is more important is to tell them the importance of what Mommy is doing for them.  Balancing act needed to be done cautiously.

One thing that made me happy was their eagerness to learn and knows the life stories of Jesus Christ.  After every short stories or topic-wise discussion, came up the demand for at least a brief incident in the life of Jesus.  That always ended up with me enacting the implications of what has been told.

This small practice, simply, many times reminded me of the sharpness of young minds.  How the world has changed the mind of people and the impact of technology on their minds, which I will later discuss here, can be seen.

It makes life worth living.  Happiness can be seen from small things in life rather than the much-anticipated or highly-rated social events.