Whatever Is True

In college, I felt stressed a lot. It's surprising, I know. I'm such a personification of my name now, never troubled by the noise of life, the chaos, the five thousand pieces of paper that come home in backpacks every week, the work I don't want to do, the work I want to do but never have time for, and all the times that everything happens at once. Yeah, I'm not the least bit affected by it now, but when I was nineteen, I flinched.

My friend Peter came my way on one such flinchy, stress-out day. And he taught me a trick. I can't remember if he thought of it himself or if he was referencing some great poet or theologian. But my heart responded immediately, knowing it had just heard something it had really always known and would never again forget. So I captured it in my journal and started in immediately on the fun of it.

He told me I needed to furnish a quiet place that was all mine. It would be filled with all the things I knew for sure to be true and good. And whenever life got noisy, I could go there and surround myself with all those familiar things. All those beautiful things.

I thought you might like to know the trick too. It's extremely fun to furnish, because you do that part in the inspired times. And it's fun to go there, because all you have to do is be still.

I have entire paragraphs from the Anne books in mine and scriptures like, "Whatever is pure and good...think on these things", "For God so loved", "I shall not fear." I have long hair there...just because. I only wear dresses and skirts unless I must wear pants and then it's really dressy dark jeans and a girly top that will sink nicely into the corner of a couch without wrinkling. My quiet place is quite specific really. And there's music there, but only sometimes, and only the very best songs in the world, and only often enough that I don't get tired of their goodness. And the best part is the memories - the times I've visited before and found not only the quiet but that deep down, unshakeable happiness that feels like surely heaven can't be better than here and yet I know it is.

That's the quiet place. If you don't have one already, you should get one. And then of course, don't forget to go there.