The Miracle of the Quiet Life
Subtitled:
A Question, 6 Ruminations, a Summary, and a Quote, on the Quiet Life
Have you ever considered the miracle that is a "quiet life"?
1) I often think about how precious it is to have a decently healthy body to dance or sing with, or hug my friends, to take a walk in the park, or feel the water running down my skin. Death, disease, and disorders abound. It is a miracle if we are able to make it to 45 or 90 largely unscathed. Spending my health and precious years in worry about how big of a mark I'm making on the world is a waste of time and distracting me from enjoying the moment in front of me.
2) Having a job that is enjoyable and pays the bills is a blessing, even if it isn't particularly heroic or interesting by anyone else's standards. There are people without jobs (well, I am one of them right now), and people with jobs that suck the life out of them. A quiet life might mean working diligently in the job at your fingertips which, if you find any satisfaction in it, is a small miracle.
3) From the news of warring nations and lessons from history classes, I start to think of the rarity of having the space to live a quiet life- no bombs falling into your neighborhood or rampant chaos to disrupt simple routines of grocery shopping, a restful sleep, or having a picnic with friends. I remember my years of moving every few years for no reason in particular and all of the houses in which I have lived, and I relish the simple joy of living in one place. To put down roots and get to know my neighbors, to enjoy the seasons in one place, in and out, the years ebbing and flowing like tides, that seems like a miracle.
4) Relationships are lifeblood to any existence. While we all long for closeness, or at least amiability, in friendships, family, coworkers, neighbors, and marriage partners, we tend to put a lot of pressure on them to measure up to some idealized standard that can't happen this side of heaven. Maybe endeavoring to work on being vulnerable and open with people, healing from or sifting through the unhealthy relationships, is the heroic path.
5) A quiet life might look like choosing a decent, kind, hardworking, fun, normal man or woman, as your spouse. Maybe on some level I used to believe that the overly romanticized, "love of the ages" pairings were the only kind worth striving towards. It wasn't meaningful or "wow" enough if it was a simple love. The beauty of a quiet life perspective might mean finding someone good and kind, who may not sweep you off your feet until a year after you're married. It is miraculous in itself to find someone who is not only willing to align their life with yours, but is someone with whom you can enjoy mucking through those quiet, messy years together.
6) There is never any escape from tragedy whichever path of life one takes, but I am wondering if I have been adding undue pressure on myself. All around us, even in Christian circles, there is a subtle teaching that a life of quiet living is somehow LESS. Less effective? Less Holy? Less worthy? You fill in the blank. We all have expectations that our life look "this way" or "that way" or else it is a wasted life, according to...yourself? Other people? Society? There is so much emphasis on living life to the fullest, making a lasting impact, and making our life mean something, that I think we forget to live.
Summary:
Normally I pride myself on my imagination, but I think in some ways, I have been frustrating myself with a few grandiose expectations I have picked up along the 29 years of life.
As I replace a few unhelpful expectations, a quiet life seems like the most daring, hopeful, and miraculous path.
There are billions of people throughout time who lived their simple lives largely unnoticed by their contemporaries, let alone all of history. We cannot know the measure of a person's life and how it ripples through the grand scheme of time. Even in its simplicity, my life will hardly be easy or uninteresting, but I am starting to sense that a quiet life might be the meaningful path I have been searching for all along.
A Pertinent Quote to Ponder:
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
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