Seven Comes to a Stop
Sometimes I think two completely different people reside in my body.
I love activities. I love adventure. I love attending all the fitness classes at our resort because they’re new and different and fun! I love the concert and the Bingo and the Minute to Win It by the pool, and I love people watching.
But given four full days to myself here in Palm Desert, what have I done? Besides my daily yoga and workout, I’ve mostly stayed in my room, alternating between the couch overlooking the golf course and the balcony where I could indulge my lizard-ness in the 100-degree heat. My journal, books, and purple gel pen have been my constant companions. Most nights I’ve strolled down to the pool at sunset to enjoy the stillness when only a handful of die-hard pool rats were still splashing around and the tips of the trees on the horizon glowed a soft yellow-orange.
If we’re talking enneagram here — and who isn’t these days — the jillion tests I’ve taken can’t decide if I’m a type 3 or a type 7. Let’s say for the sake of this blog, I’m a type 7.
One of the things that is most important for a type 7 is to find space for silence and solitude…stillness. We tend to stay in perpetual motion. We love the next fun activity. The other day at yoga here at the resort, the instructor told the class that I had been to almost all her classes the day before. I said, “I just love activities!” Someone responded, “It’s too bad they don’t give an award for doing the most activities at the resort.” HA! I literally won that award a few years ago when we were on vacation with Bob and Maryellen Willis in St. Lucia!
As much as I love activity and adventure, my soul also craves quiet, stillness, solitude. It’s much easier to stay in motion than it is to seek out stillness. But it is a necessity, not a luxury. In this quiet space, I become grounded in who I am in Christ. I receive comfort and guidance. I reconnect with what is most important.
The three-page brochure of daily resort activities has been sitting on the coffee table since Chip and Charli went home at the beginning of the week. Maybe another time, I would have joined in on every single bingo game, karaoke contest, margarita mixer, and movie night. But not this week.
This week has been a quiet oasis. Water for my soul.
Thank you, God, for knowing exactly what I need and meeting me here in the quiet.
Tonight’s Chandler-ness:
12-9-96 Chandler, I was leaving to go somewhere, and I said, “Chandler, take care of Daddy. He doesn’t feel good.” You said, “Ok, Mom. I’ll take him to the doctor.” I said, “OK.” As I started to drive away, you frantically yelled, “Mom, Mom, Mom…I don’t know how to start the van!”
