As I mentioned recently, I’ve been looking for a new acronym for what I’m trying to create here at home. House-by-the-road (HBTR), house-in-the-woods (HITW). Nothing resonates; but that doesn’t matter, because life matters, and here in this house the CBTS mood continues to make itself visible and active--silence, solitude, simplicity, and times alone.
I notice that I am becoming more intentional about the choices I make to assure this. The rhythm at the original cottage included daily walks, times to sit and be, pray, to meditate, read and write, and to do a jigsaw puzzle. Absent was an evening glass of wine, the telephone, and the TV (I’m not there yet on this last one). Those continue to be some of the physical and mental markers that support the spiritual (emotional and psychological) way of being for which all human being strive.
Although I had a daily routine at the cottage, I didn’t have a to-do list, nor did I have others depending on me. That made sense for the four days a week I was there, but it doesn’t work for my life here at home. However, getting rid of being compulsively and unwittingly busy, busy, busy does make senses. In fact, it is one of the essential criteria for silence, solitude and simplicity, which leads to that place of inner peace deep in our souls.