Quietness & Trust

Nashville was in the path of a major ice storm. Nashville is where I live.

Power is out. Temperatures are bitter cold.

Quietness covers. Like a blanket. Like the blanket of ice outside our door.

Stillness. A stillness that penetrates.

I often consider the importance of stillness and quiet. It is a consistent theme in my work.

"In quietness and trust will be my strength"

But maybe I haven't considered it to this degree.

The only thing breaking this silence, besides my pencil on paper, is the fluttering of birds outside my window looking for food, and trees falling in my yard and nearby. Like a  fireworks show with your eyes closed.

Anxiety breaks the quietness as it gets colder by the minute, and soon it will get darker by the hour.

Suddenly the noise is quite loud.

Even among the quiet.

So I sit with myself, my pipe, my cold coffee. Nowhere else to turn. Nothing to distract.

Down to the basics.

And I ponder the verse again.

"In quietness and trust will be my strength" 

I don't sit in the quiet left to my own devices. He wants to join me.

"Trust"

Trust calms anxiety. 

I let Him fill the space of my whirling mind and speak into the quietness.

Nothing has changed outside my door. 

But something changed inside of me.