A quiet thing

Yesterday morning, I got to enjoy some rare moments of peace and quiet, before (most of) the rest of the house woke up. The puppy and I took a walk outside, just as pink and purple streaks were stretching across the sky, while hubby and the rest of our furkids snoozed inside. It was blissful.

It's been nearly a year since we moved to our new place in the country, and I'm just as pleasantly surprised by the stillness and tranquility now as I was then.


When we got this house, I must admit to being a little hesitant about moving so far away from the city. I'd lived in (or within about 10 miles of) NYC for 15 years by that point, so I had gotten used to a lot of conveniences. But my grandmother once told me, "Everyone should live in New York at least once...just don't stay there too long," and I think she was right. It was time for me to move on. I was ready.




I've never been a city girl. Most of my favorite memories as a child are times spent at my grandfather's dairy farm, or visiting the beach...even just walking down a country road, looking at flowers and admiring the wildlife. While I'm glad I was lucky enough to live in the middle of things for awhile (and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world), I feel far more at home in my current environment...surrounded by trees and nature, rather than people and sirens.

Hubby and I were just talking about this over the weekend, and I don't think my comfort level is entirely because of our physical location. In fact, it's pretty clear that's just part of it (even if our recent move was one of the catalysts for a lot of these changes in my life). If anything, I'm more comfortable in my life now than I was just a few months ago...happier, calmer, more centered...and I've been too tired during this pregnancy to do much yoga or pilates, so that's not the reason either (though I do miss my yoga and pilates classes)!


Have you ever felt like an impostor in your own life? Then something changes, no matter how seemingly insignificant, and all of a sudden it's as if the curtains were opened and you realize a window has been there the whole time...you just never noticed it before.

I'm not going to say I had some kind of major epiphany...in fact, this has been a gradual realization for me. One of my favorite songs says it best ("A Quiet Thing," by Kander & Ebb)...

When it all comes true, just the way you planned...it's funny, but the bells don't ring. 

It's a quiet thing. 

When you hold the world in your trembling hand, you'd think you'd hear a choir sing. 

It's a quiet thing. 

There are no exploding fireworks. Where's the roaring of the crowd? Maybe it's the strange new atmosphere, way up here among the clouds... 

But I don't hear the drums and I don't hear the band -- the sounds I'm told such moments bring. 

Happiness comes in on tiptoe. Well, what do you know? It's a quiet thing. A very quiet thing...

So that's how I'm feeling lately. All of a sudden, the world feels right to me again...and it happened so gradually, I'm just beginning to realize it. What a wonderful way to celebrate bringing a new life into the world, to be grateful for the life you already have. Not such a bad way to start off the week, either.