Finding Your Inner Voice
When the world grows quiet, we can finally hear the life within us.
Happy Monday,
Coming home from my last trip to the airport on Friday, I opened my front door and was greeted by an unexpected silence. The hustle and bustle of the past two weeks—my kids coming home, family gatherings, and the sweetness of celebrating a special wedding—had officially come to a close.
The question I asked myself in that moment was:
Who am I when no one else needs me?
Because there I was with no one needing me.
Well...except for Ed's motorcycle adventure. He had left me fully in charge of Luna and Abbi, who were more than ready for dinner, belly rubs, and any ball or toy thrown their way.
As the weekend unfolded, I found myself in the garden replanting my lettuce bed. There is something about placing tiny seeds into fresh soil that also allows the noise of the world to be silenced.
While my hands worked, my mind wandered back to my manuscript, Good Dirt. The words that have been left unattended for many weeks now. Yet in the quiet, I found new ideas surfacing. Pieces beginning to fall into place again.
As the moments passed, the question that continued to linger:
Who am I when it's just me?
Perhaps, I thought, that is where our truest voice lives.
The video I created while gardening became its own form of meditation. As I transformed one small garden bed in preparation for a future harvest, I realized I was doing something similar within myself, making room for what I hope will grow next.
As you begin this new week (the last one of July), I'd love to leave you with a question of your own.
Who do you become when the world grows quiet?
Can you step beyond the busyness long enough to listen to your own heart? To notice what it is quietly asking for your attention? To potentially make space for the unexpected in life that is waiting to be lived?
Those are the questions I'm carrying with me this week. As I write and garden...garden and write...and of course take care of my two sweet puppies who will faithfully remind me to pause, play, and simply be.
Plant often and with Love!
Cheri 💚
Cheri Ruskus
Author and Founder of Grow You Girl
P.S. The photograph at the top of today's letter isn't one I took this weekend. I captured it years ago. Yesterday it unexpectedly appeared in my phone's photo memories. Looking at it now, I don't think I would have chosen a more fitting image if I had gone searching for one. Sometimes life has a quiet way of reminding us that what we need has been waiting for us all along.
