Barbara Bredell-Searle
“Silence isn’t empty. It’s full of answers.” -Unknown
After you have gotten the last child down on their nap furnishing; hopefully the room is quiet or have sounds of relaxing music playing in the background. As the children lay there or drift off into a wonderful rest time, you may have that relief of “Ah, finally a quiet moment.”
After working several hours of your day, you are relieved for a mid-morning break, you go into the breakroom or a space at your program to sit for a few moments. You close your eyes briefly and let out a happy breath and may think, “I have a few minutes of quiet.”
You are starting your day with an empty classroom to prepare the activities and lessons for the children, the room is inviting and quiet and suddenly a smile of warmth overcomes you and you breathe in the quietness.
The children are in their activity areas and you are observing their interactions with each other, you are quiet for a few minutes as you take in what is going on around you and a thought comes to your mind.
Quiet times:
We have all probably heard those words more than once in our lives. I remember hearing them as a child in school when the teacher would announce to the class “Put your heads on the desk for a few minutes because its quiet time.” I never understood the reasoning behind that task. Now as an adult, I am beginning to live for those “quiet times.”
Taking a few moments several times a day to be around quietness may feel uncomfortable at first because you may be accustomed to being around noise all the time. Being quiet may allow you to have a thought, an idea, an inspiration, or a reflection come your way. Quiet times each day is an opportunity for us to take some time out for self-care. Our minds are bombarded with many events going on around us, some good and some not so good. We may turn on the television and hear so many things that are going on around the world or in our community, you may call up friends and family and listen to their ups and downs of life or you may have tasks that you must prepare for at work. I am sure that you can think of so many things that are on your mind in or out of the classroom or your workplace. That is why we need those quiet times; to just be quiet and listen to our body, hear what is in our thoughts, feel what is going on inside of us. Try it just once, intentionally be quiet to hear what quietness is telling you.
