29 Days of Quiet {day one}

I used to dread this time of year: the dark days of mid-winter descending like a heavy fog after the crescendo of the holidays.

But this year is different.

I think it started in December, when we first learned about my father-in-law’s cancer. Just two weeks before Christmas, and suddenly all I wanted to do was curl up under the down comforter. Most of our typical holiday activities screeched to a halt. Instead, we concentrated on the regular routine – just getting through every day was enough.

While Brad was in Minnesota visiting doctors with his dad, I’d put the kids to bed, turn out all the lamps except the tiny white lights on the mantel and the ones wrapped around the bannister and the tree. Then I'd light a vanilla votive in the glass hurricane and lie back on the couch, fleece socks on my feet, comforter pulled up to my chin.

I didn't watch TV. I didn't read or blog or tweet. I simply lay with my head on the striped pillow and was quiet.

"It sounds kind of depressing," Brad said, when he called from Minneapolis and I told him about my nightly ritual.

But it wasn't. It was comforting.

I can’t even tell you what I thought about, or what I prayed, or even if I thought or prayed at all. All I know is that those nights under the comforter, the candle flickering shadows across the coffee table, the house creaking into the silence, those nights were solace for me.

That's when I first thought, why not embrace the quiet for a while?

And so, as we stand at the doorway of February, a leap year February, I invite you not to leap but to step gently into a month of quiet with me. Together let’s embrace this hushed, mid-winter pause. I’m not sure at all where this might lead us, or what this series will look like, or even if I will be able to maintain it uninterrupted for the full 29 days, but I invite you to walk into 29 Days of Quiet with me.

Will you come along?

{a note: I will *try* to post all 29 days of February, but Mondays will still be reserved for the "Hear It on Sunday, Use It on Monday" community link-up. So please don't hesitate to come on by and link up for that, as noisily as you wish!}

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