Month of Gratitude: Quiet

I am thankful all 365 days of the year but during this #MonthOfGratitude I will be narrowing it down and sharing with you all things I am grateful for! Since there are 26 letters of the alphabet and Thanksgiving is on November 27, this is how it goes: 

Post something you're grateful for that begins with each letter of the alphabet each day leading to Thanksgiving. It's a great way to focus on the blessings in your life and not the stresses of the holiday season! 

So with the stresses of the holiday season, come much needed moments of quiet. I don't mean lock yourself in the bathroom and play Candy Crush quiet. I mean, leave, go somewhere that is always quiet and be purposefully quiet as well. I lack this. Except when I'm at the beach. Even though there's the sounds of the ocean, birds, people...it all blends into one sound for me and it's so calming that it becomes quiet. That's the stuff. 

I'm grateful for quiet because in stressful times it does three things:

• Give me an opportunity to pray and listen (especially if I'm seeking strength and patience)
• Give me the opportunity to calm down
• Allow me the opportunity evaluate what positive route to take

Quiet also cues me to realize if my reaction to a situation was due to being tired and then I pay attention and respect what my body is telling me and I go lay down. No questions, no excuses, no arguments, I take a kiddie nap and regroup.

I think I have a different level of desire to be quiet. Loud, random noises irk me to no end. If I'm in a room of the house and it's been quiet for an extended amount of time and I suddenly hear someone watching a video on their phone or playing a game, I become uncomfortable. My ears literally hurt and I tend to be unpleasant for no reason. It's because my inner quiet has been disturbed and I wasn't expecting it. Now, don't get me wrong, phones ringing, a baby crying, things like that don't bother me. Manufactured noises that are repetitive make me want to body slam kittens. 

I've also noticed when my quiet is disturbed, that inner core of "Shhhh" that I hold on to is hard to get back and I can be off for a minute until I either give into it (which then distracts me from whatever task I was completing) or I snap at the person causing the noise (which then throws me into a cycle of debating an apology or justifying why they should get over it). Either way, no work gets done, no one's at peace and the quiet that now exists is very unhealthy.

So I have learned to maintain the quiet I so desperately covet, I have to create it and respect it where it is, expect it to leave and experience the moment for what it is when I lose it.

What do you do to maintain quiet when you're stressed? Is quiet something that is important to you? What are you thankful for that starts with "Q"? It was this, or quizzes for me.