Thin … Quiet

After the earthquake, there was a fire. After the fire, there was a sound. Thin. Quiet.                                                   

1 Kings 19:12

The past 16 months have felt like an earthquake. Life was shaken up when Covid began and there were many aftershocks to follow. 

After the earthquake, there was a fire…..

I have been out of school for 18 days now and up until this morning they have felt like the fire after the quake. 

After the fire, there was a sound… thin… quiet.

Oh, how I have longed for this day to come.  I have spent the past 18 days hot, tired and very unsettled. Each day has felt like survival mode. What can I do to get through the day. The extreme heat dome over us and getting used to a cpap machine didn’t help at all. I spent many days spinning my wheels, not sure what to do next.  Trying to find my new normal. 

Summer.

That time when you suddenly stop being around 300 people every day and go home to “relax.”  Easier said than done! 

This morning I headed out to my garden early in the morning to beat the heat and get it watered. As I sat on my rocking chair as the smokey sun began to peak through the trees, I began to notice life happening in my plants. There are early stages of tomatoes, zucchini, lemon cucumbers, pumpkins, and corn!  Every so slowly they are starting to emerge! 

The cool breeze ushered in a calm, yet exciting feeling. I closed my eyes and took it all in. 

Thin.

Quiet. 

Today I felt a holy moment in the garden. It was not in a grandiose way. It was simpler than that. It was ‘thin and quiet.’ (*thin and quiet are the Hebrew words for calm)

My summer will not be filled with grand things.  No vacations or extravagant events. Rather it will be complimented with early mornings in the garden and time spent in the Word… special time with my grandchildren and family… trips to the grocery store… pool time with friends… photo shoots… time and space to read and write… better sleep… watching my garden come alive and harvesting the treasures… 

“God shows up unexpectedly in the simplicity of our lives – in the mundane, unspectacular, and routine. When we recognize God in the thin quiet, life becomes sacramental. My experiences, relationships, struggles, and joys are drenched in the divine. The secular becomes sacred, the mundane becomes holy, and the boring becomes beautiful.” 

God of the thin quiet, pass by me today even in the seemingly mundane parts. Help me to remember that YOU are with me always. 

(BREATHE… devotions to quiet the soul  -Ellie Claire)

I began to feel my rhythm today… and for that I am eternally grateful. My life is not defined by comparison of what I see on social media but by the Holy God who created me and desires to use me each and every day amidst the sacred mundane routines of my life. 

What simple, mundane, every day things can you find in your days to bring you to that thin.. quiet place?