Quiet Moments

Quiet Moments ©

By Michael Casey

We all have quiet moments, even if we have to wait until the kids are in bed asleep. As I sit in front of the computer I can hear the sound of cars splashing or should I say surfing through the rain. The clock is gently ticking on the shelf beside me, as I type the sound of the keyboard overtakes the sound of the clock and I can no longer hear it, it’s an old clunky keyboard that suits my sausage fingers. I may put some music on in a minute but for now I’m going with the theme to see where it will lead me.

The street outside is empty, who wants to walk in the rain, maybe only Barry White and Love Unlimited, which picks the music I will play in a minute or so, funny how choices are made, a random thought leads to the music you will listen too. My small daughter loves Barry White too, because she’s heard me play him, so she has adopted Barry White, not literally, she is so small and Barry was so big, but you have a mental picture in your mind now, a cartoon of a tiny child and big Barry.

I look over to my plant corner and I’m happy to see that my orange plant has started to bud again, the geranium has lost its flowers but new buds have started to grow, then there is my limy/yellow plant which is doing just fine. Totoro has left them alone, for the moment so they should create a nice display. They say you should look away from your screen and give your eyes a rest for at least 5 minutes every hour. I did actually go “blind” for a day about 8 years ago as I was constantly on the computer at work controlling the high speed printers, you can find the story in one of my books no doubt.

If you just stop and listen it’s like being in a waiting room, the tick of the clock and the pendulum swing, very peaceful, until you think of Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball. If you were in a waiting room and you started to laugh out loud as the image came to mind people would stare at you, but you are safe you are at home. While I think of it there is a comedy version of wrecking ball with a bearded guy on Utube.

You scratch an itch and  it is as if every sound is magnified,  like some Art House film, that nobody watches but wins awards, time seems to drag, it’s an illusion, time is constant ask Einstein, but if you are all alone waiting then time appears to drag. In my hotel days we mentioned Time on a course, with regards to guests feeling that we were taking too long to sort a problem. So 2 people were sent to walk to the far end of the hotel and back again. Then you had to say how long they had been. The answer varied so much, apart for me, I knew it exactly, because it was part of my daily security patrol, so I knew exactly how long that walk would be.

A quiet moment can work wonders, it gives you time to pull yourself together before you face the world. But, you do need to fill time too or it appears to drag, as some people thought on the course. If you fill time then people won’t realise they are waiting, and then when they get the answer to their question they are relaxed and less likely to complain.

Prayer is quiet time, it’s a moment to talk to God, though lots of people don’t do that nowadays. You can get out of the habit, or your pain is so unbearable that you lose your Faith, or you just stop going to Church. Personally I think any kind of conversation is a prayer no need to formalise it or to go to a building whatever you call it.

 Perhaps all you need to do is sit and listen to the ticking of a clock, look at the beauty of the flowers in the pots, look out the window and see the birds flying by, hear the chatter of the magpies. Listen to the falling rain, which literally is the water of life, live one moment at a time, for all life is divine. And then put that Barry White record on, for God loves us Just the Way We Are.