Fun Monday - The Quiet Place

My march through September as host of Fun Monday is drawing closer to the end... for this week, I wanted to know about your "quiet place." Life is crazy and everyone needs a way to escape from the crazy and renew themselves. Where is YOUR quiet place? Do you take refuge in music? Massage? Meditation? Exercise? What is your escape from the world - even for just a little while?

Things have been hectic around here. My husband had knee replacement surgery. My son started back to school. Work's report calendar rolled around in June and is due again in October. We had a pledge drive. Then there's the day-to-day of making sure everyone eats, that the animals are taken care of, that the house is clean and in good repair, and people have clothes to wear. Every night I fall into bed exhausted and wake up feeling like there is never enough sleep. Obviously, I need to find a way to escape without actually going anywhere!

Back before I had ZBoy, my quiet place was smoking. A smoke break took me outside away from people. I usually had a book with me and I could sit for 15 or twenty minutes, smoking and reading and being very far away from my life. I actually smoked until Z was about 6, then gave it up for good when I discovered that I couldn't finish a sentence without running out of air. For a while, I also gave up my quiet place.

Reading alone is a good place to escape to, but without the cigarette, people feel like they can interrupt you. So as wonderful as reading was, it didn't work for me the same way anymore.

I used to like riding my bike. For this to work, you have to ride alone though. Not with a husband who's taunting you to keep up or a son who's whining at you to slow down or with dogs who like to take off into the woods and leave you on the trail yelling their names and getting a bit steamed. But a ride alone on the bike trail is a lovely way to escape for a while! It doesn't happen nearly enough.

So I've been casting about for a quiet place. My husband's surgery actually showed me where it was. In the pool.

We have a very nice above-ground pool that is plagued by algae and things that drop into it from the trees above. When Darling Man became incapacitated, it fell to me to try to keep the pool clean. At first, I resented this, but as time went by and I realized that my mind was free to wander while I vaccuumed the crud off the bottom of the pool, it became my refuge. Every other day, I'd get in there with my brush and hose and suck the bottom off, then skim the debris from the surface. After a couple of hours, my soul was calm, my body cool - and the pool was sparkling!

Fall is arriving though and it's almost time to close down the pool for the winter. Where will my next quiet place be? In a paint brush? Or my lawnmower? Or in the scrubbing of kitchen cabinets?

Sorry for the lack of pictures - my main computer is down and this one doesn't do pictures - so I had to make it a wordy Fun Monday for me.

Check out the other quiet places out there in blogland! Visit the participants listed below!

Molly
Lavon
Faye
Swampy
CynicalGirl
Pamela
Jill (who's post will be a little late)
Grace

And if you have a quiet place you'd like to share, let me know in the comments and I'll add a link to your blog!