Stillness Speaks ~ Reflection 12/20/2025

​This morning, my prayer was simple:
Lord, thank you for this day of peace and stillness. Let me embrace the slowness of being present in each moment.
As the world rushes around me, I feel the pull to join in the chaos, and at the same time, it feels inauthentic to do anything other than to sit quietly with God.
This time of year is full of invitations: pop-up shops, holiday parties, and photo ops. I see others celebrating the holiday, participating in all the ways we’re told we should. Still, the only pull I feel is toward retreat.
That raises a quiet, honest question in me:
Why don’t I want to join in?
Am I missing something by choosing stillness?
Is retreat a way of avoiding the human experience or a way of honoring it?
This stillness brings an awareness of the season I am in. I’ve just come off an intense year and a very demanding work season. I’m standing at the edge of publishing a book that involves deep emotional and spiritual presence. And perhaps most importantly, I’m learning to listen to my body in a new way, learning what it means to slow down before exhaustion demands it.
The Advent season reminds us that not every sacred moment happens in celebration. Some happen in waiting. Mary carried something sacred that demanded stillness. Before anything is born, there is a long season of becoming.
I hold this tension gently. I don’t want to confuse solitude with isolation. I know how easy it can be to disappear under the guise of rest. So I’m paying attention and not forcing myself outward, nor closing myself off.
Presence doesn’t always look like showing up everywhere.
Sometimes it looks like choosing what is nourishing, honest, and sustainable.
For me, right now, that means fewer obligations and deeper listening. Less doing, more being.
If you find yourself out of step with the season, you’re not alone. Stillness may be your way of participating more fully than you realize.
There is wisdom in honoring the pace your soul asks for.
And there is grace in trusting that this, too, belongs.
Peace be with you.
J~

---