Today I am grateful for time alone.  There was a time in my life,  for 20 years or so, when I was never alone.  Life with three kids was busy!  We were blessed to live in the village of our small town and the Fisher house was the gathering place.  There were always multiple friends of our kids sleeping over.  Saturday was always the busiest, because they would sleep over and then all go to Sunday School together the next morning. I remember on those Saturdays nights, Doug asking me, “Ok, who’s here?  And where are our kids?”   They were wonderful years, and I enjoyed every one of them.  But they were noisy years. Getting time alone for contemplation and finding some soul space wasn’t easy.

Our kids are grown now and, for the most part, on their own.  Life is not any less busy, but now I do have time for soul space; time to be with what is and enjoy the silence.  Today was one of those days.  It was delightful to spend time alone in the beauty of the newly fallen snow and just be.   There is a sacredness to the quiet that is hard to explain.  It makes me feel deeply rooted in the here and now.  And that rootedness changes everything.

 I was afraid of these days way back when, when I would think of what life would be like without the bustle of full-time motherhood.  I thought I would never adjust, and maybe be overwhelmed by the loneliness. None of that happened (which showed me what a waste of time it is to worry about things that may never happen!).  Once I let go of the fear of what the aloneness would be like,  I was surprised to find there is great contentment in the silence and aloneness.  I found that God was waiting for me in that aloneness.

Perhaps your life is in that noisy phase that I experienced all those years ago.  Or perhaps you are newly alone, challenged by the fear of being lonely.  Where ever you are in life,  I invite you to embrace the alone time.  God is waiting for you there.