Church today was awesome! The sermon was given by one of the church's missionaries to Mexico and was a really great reminder about focusing on God, instead of on my goals and hopes and ideas about what this new life here will look like. Also, a cute guy said hello to me in the parking lot. What more could you ask for from a Sunday morning?
It is still really very warm here, and since I am a cheapskate I have been refraining from running the one air conditioner in my apartment, but today I gave in: it's been running all day, and I'm thiiiiiis close to turning on a second fan. Thank goodness for the orange dreamsicle bars in the freezer :)
As I may have mentioned, it's very quiet here! I come from a big family with lots of noise and talking and fighting and laughing and cooking and typing and practicing of instruments and singing of songs and tvs going and radios blaring and housework being done...and now it's me. The sound of only two hands typing. One fan blowing. And..that's it. It's so quiet that I hear the elevator running from beyond my bedroom wall. So quiet the sound of ice falling startles me out of my wits. So quiet I had to give up chewing my gum because I could hear it, and it was of annoyance.
I'm not good at dealing with silence. I associate silence with anger and dislike - most of my family is only quiet when they are upset. I associate silence with being alone, away from the fun and apart from whatever lively good thing is happening.
So, my mission for the next few days is to appreciate silence if I can. Not saying I won't be filling most of my waking moments with music or television or stories on cd, but I will make a conscious effort to leave about 30 minutes of the day quiet, and see what happens. So far it seems that silence brings awareness of yourself - there's nothing drowning out the sound of your actions, the noise of your thoughts and breathing. Whether this should be called introspection or self-centeredness, I haven't quite determined.
Thoughts on silence? Do you love it or hate it? What does silence teach you?
I usually love silence. It is a time where I can more easily hear God's voice. It also gives me a chance to really hear what my own thoughts are which teaches you a lot about yourself. Yes, it can be uncomfortable and makes me feel alone but overall it is good.
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