Peace and Quiet

Peace and Quiet

When I was younger, my siblings and I would ask my father what he wanted for Christmas. His answer was always the same, “Peace and quiet is all I need.”  I’d look at him curiously and say, “But, Dad, you ask for the same thing every year.” Now I tell my father that I understand perfectly what he was after.

Not only that, but my father modeled how to carve out a few quiet moments even with family flurry all around him. I can see him with his legs stretched out, in a living room chair, “inspecting the inside of his eyelids.” Whenever I spied him taking this time for himself, it made the whole house seem cozier and often, I felt an irresistible pull into the room, to take a few moments myself. After about fifteen minutes of grabbing a little solitude, my father would be up and ready to participate in whatever holiday activity or errand was calling his name.

He and I were the only ones in the house who liked to watch the Yule Log on television, a continuous video loop of the fireplace at Gracie Mansion, NY. It had an accompanying audio of Christmas carols, broadcast on WPIX, Channel 11. (Anyone remember it?) Dad and I would sit in the family room with the lights out, pretending we were by a real fireplace. It was our time for a little peace and quiet.

Find Your Peace

We wait to have peace in our world. Often it seems we wait to have peace in our own lives. Yet, as expressed in the anonymous quote below, we can find peace even in the midst of our present reality. We can find it — create it — in the now.

Peace.
It does not mean to be in a place
where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work.
It means to be in the midst of those things
and still be calm in your heart.

Happy Holidays and may peace take root in your hearts.