The First Day of the Rest of Your Life: Deep Thoughts

Life gets so crazy. I find it hard to round up a quiet moment and just sit. When I was a teenager I had a "thinking rock" conveniently located in the back yard. It was large enough to sit on and presented a panoramic view of the rocky mountains, my mountains. I'd go out there when life got too loud, plop down, and wait for the crazy to abate.

It's been years since I've had that opportunity. NYC didn't exactly have any "quiet" places--not even in Central Park. Upstate New York was temperate about one month out of the year, and Florida for the most part has been the same story--but reverse. Too hot to go out. Well, that and I've let myself get busy.

Today I took a moment, a quiet moment while waiting for my son to take a "state" test at the local school. I ran away to a park and sat.

For me, sitting is when inspiration hits. When I'm listening, when I clear the distractions away there are voices. No, I'm not talking the crazy characters in my head. I hear music: choirs, orchestras--incredible melodies, sounds so grand they can't be fully voiced by any mortal experience. They turn my mind to where answers lie.

My husband tells me I'm a bit of an anomaly. I don't believe him. Everyone has access to that channel of inspiration if they can just get still enough to hear it. It may not come through music. Yours might be a path of poetry, or observations, or conversation, but inspiration is out there. It's waiting for all of us in a most personal form. The question is, when will you stop to hear?