Deb Smouse

Quiet Sunday

Posted on 23. Nov, 2008 by Deb in Just.....Me, Just...Writing

I still have one old-fashioned clock.  You know the kind I mean.  It has big numbers, runs on a battery, and has not only a minute hand and hour hand, but also a second hand.  The second hand actually clicks as the moments edge to the next minute.  The clock lives in my office, and when I think about it I realize it has lived in various offices - both corporate and home offices - for the past fourteen years or more.  When I walked into my office this morning, fresh cup of coffee in hand and a list of want to do’s and need to do’s floating around in my head, all I could hear in the house was the ticking.

Oldest kid is at a friend’s this weekend.  Youngest kid is at her dad’s.  The dog is sleeping in her new favorite spot, holding up the fireplace.  A girlfriend came over (at the last minute) for dinner last night, but left around 11.  I was able to wake on my own, fix myself breakfast, and now have time to enjoy the sheer volume of quiet and the tick-tick-ticking of the clock.

When I was younger, I tended to like to study or write with background noise.  The TV was always on or a radio was softly seeping out the top-40 tunes.  When the kids were little, there was always noise of some sort.  After the divorce, the silent was almost suffocating.  The first weekend the kids went to my ex-husbands and I was left completely alone, I had a desperate need for noise of some sort.  The first purchase I made was a small, inexpensive TV for my bedroom.  I slept with it on when I was alone in the house, but after a few weekends of that, I found the quiet welcoming.  I suddenly found that the only way I could really write was with the blessings of quiet as I had learned that quiet was not really a burden of my spirit, but a way to allow my soul to have the space to think and ponder what was happening.

The last couple of years of heavy travel - and especially the last six months - I was able to find some peace, but rarely.  Hotels, no matter how posh, are never silent.  And if I am to be honest, home was rarely  a space to where I felt as if my spirit could relax enough to paw through the things in my mind as I attempted to get them out of my head and into my computer.  Mainly, because, it felt as if I were simply a visitor.

Though a little eerie in some ways, the quiet is actually comforting and for the first time in awhile, home feels comfortable enough to wander through all the thoughts in my head.

It looks as if my business will be changing a bit as this project that has been my life for the last seven months rolls to a conclusion.  I need to take a hard look at my marketing materials. I have yet to add a photo to my business web site (there are two below I am considering - which one do you like best??).  I also know that the website isn’t as up-to-date as it needs to be, and if possible, I’d like to update that this week.  Offers are now being accepted input

My coffee has emptied now.  It’s time to either switch to water, or make a fresh pot.    I have alot of writing I want - and need - to do.  My column for December for All Things Girl as well as a new piece for Pink Nighties, which I need to get back off of dead-center.  There is also a new offshoot of my business I have been rolling around in my head for the last month or so.  Today will likely be a day of more posts - either here or at one of the other blogs I write at - as well as a day to allow the quiet to last as long as it possibly can.

I hope today is a day that is giving you the quiet - or noise - that you need.