Five Minute Friday = Prompt word, five minutes, just write.

No over thinking, no over complicating.

This weeks prompt word: LOUD

 

Early on a Monday with the house still sleeping  the quiet seems loud. 

Just how I like it.

There’s just the sounds of freshness and first light and the birds as happy as me that the worst of the cold seems to be behind us. There’s sun coming and the smell of my coffee.

I want to stretch it out into the rest of the day

And I could say “But the days get so busy and hectic and jammed full”.

And sometimes they are but I wonder if mostly, we just make it that way.

Here’s what I’ve noticed – – –

I tend to fill up the God given spaces and  gaps and pauses in my day with distractions like Instagram and Facebook and Google. Then there’s Netflix  (man there’s some good stuff to watch), or the lure of a quick project, (5-10 minutes is all the invitation I need).

They’re easy reprieves that keep me occupied and at arms length from the worst of my own thinking.

But then I wonder why I feel like a stranger to myself and God and the people that I want to be most here for.

I wonder too why I’m short on time and find myself rushing.

So I’ve been attempting to NOT fill all the spaces these last few weeks, especially at night time and during my breaks from work.  Trying! 

I felt a bit lost at first and annoyed and cranky.

Withdrawals I think you’d call it.  

But then you get to the other side of it.

And coming face to face with the rough edges of my own thinking isn’t the worst thing ever. There’s love when you arrive there and arms wide open prodigal son like. I should have known there would be but it still surprises.

There’s something to be said for closing your eyes and listening

In drinking your cup of tea without scrolling

In sitting out in the sun and reading a book made of paper and binding 

Of going to sleep to calming music instead of Season Two of “Dead To Me”

I seem to have more time now

To listen to a podcast occasionally that does me some good.

To write a little

To make something a bit nicer for dinner

To do a project without rushing

Its nice not feeling so frantic

And now watching something decent on Netflix is a bit of a weekend treat.

Our bodies heal when we sleep but I think our minds heal also when we are not bombarding them constantly with information and activity and comparison.

Its like our soul can finally get a look in. Like it stretches out and sighs with relief.

Life gets loud.

We let it get loud

Let’s make the quiet louder

Thanks for reading friend.

Read what others have done with their five minutes here.