welcome

{this is not my house, but a fitting photo i took during a routine visit in the meadow at the botanical gardens}

Welcome to This Quiet House.  In September of 2008 I started blogging about my new life as a single mother with two growing girls.  I had not yet seen 40, my children were five and seven years old. We had come from a place of darkness into the light of a new life.  My blog was called Under The Big Blue Sky, because that was how our life felt.  Open, carefree and light.  Exploring and growing under the watchful eye of that beautiful blue.

But things move on.  I have known for awhile that it was time for a change.  It is six years later.  My girls are moving into their teenage years and I am at midlife.  It is a different kind of exploring and growing that we are doing.  It feels like we are growing more internally than in the exterior world.

And in order to grow internally we need quiet.  We need a calm, safe place to sit and reflect on what our lives mean and who we want to grow to be.  For growing never stops whether we are twelve or seventy-three.

The world outside is full of noise, of horror stories, of conflicting messages about what we should do and who we should be.  Sometimes in the chaos of life we need someplace to go to sort out all those messages, calm all that noise and be reminded of the peace we can find when we are left alone with ourselves.

This is the new space I have chosen.  I hope those that followed me Under The Big Blue Sky will join me here.  I hope that new weary visitors will grace these pages as well.  But more than anything I wish for This Quiet House to be a community where we can share our memories, our thoughts our journeys.  In the space below I have outlined my plans for this blog as well as it's companion Facebook and Twitter accounts.

In 2013 I wrote this post about what I wanted This Quiet House to be.  Here is a clipping from it.

"I will write for you....and for me...those thoughts we are thinking, one day I hope to share those words with you, one day I hope to open a space where we can gather together, where we can feel safe enough to sit and share ourselves or simply sit and share a space.

One day I will give you a space.   A quiet space where you can go to feel whole, to relish the quiet, to surround yourself with the beauty of handmade quilts and favorite books, and  never-ending supplies of tea and baked goods.  One day I will provide you with a place to find your quiet, and if you wish to join me and gather our quiet together we could teach each other beautiful things"

This was the sweet beginning of my thoughts for this space and what it would become.  My wish is that even if only for the few minutes a day you are here you find peace.

Please join me in this journey.

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The Passing of Days at This Quiet House

Posting on the Facebook and Twitter feeds will be daily.

Blog posts will appear about three times a week.

Once a month I will post a contest and call for community thoughts or stories.  The winner will be selected at random and selected comments and stories will be shared on the blog.

Every Friday on the Facebook and Twitter pages will be Five Line Friday.  I will post my own five-line poem from the week and encourage you to share your own.  I will post select five-line poems on the last Friday of the month, here on the blog.

Once a month I will post a Kindness challenge, only because the world needs more kindness :-)

The rest of the time will be my own reflections, cups of comfort and quiet inspiration.

My future plans (remember we are always growing) are to add a podcast, a possible annual quiet weekend, and to hopefully one day create a real Quiet House.

Please share this space with your friends, so that our community can grow together and I always welcome your comments, feedback and thoughts.