It’s a quiet night tonight. I’m sitting here listening to some music, enjoying the relative calmness of the house. I don’t think that I appreciate that often enough. You would think that after the whirlwind of having my nieces and nephews here, I wouldn’t take the quiet quite so much for granted. But there you go. Even I lose sight from time to time. (Does that sound as egotistical as I think it does? Oh well, a little ego in my diary is probably a good thing.)

As soon as I got home tonight, I decided to haul both loads of my laundry up the stairs. Then I dutifully folded them and put them away. Now I just have to get the last few dirty clothes into the hamper. I’ll do that on my way to bed, since it’s back upstairs and I’m feeling too lazy to get up and walk up there. It’s funny though how a small, menial task like folding and putting away laundry can have an incredible effect on a person’s state of mind. I found it very relaxing. I think it’s because it gave me something to focus on, and for that few minutes that I was working on it, I was able to let all the crazy thoughts that whiz through my head while at work dissipate. And I was left with a moment of mental quiet — relatively speaking, at least.

You know, as I think about that, I find myself wondering. Maybe the reason I don’t appreciate the calm and quiet around here is because of the usual lack of quiet in my own mind. I usually let my mind jump from topic to topic to topic, back to the original topic so quickly. So I find myself in a constant state of mental chaos of sorts. So because of this, I expect my external surroundings to match this. I fill it with the noise of the television, the “noise” of several different conversations and message board discussions, and any other “noise” I can find. If I can’t learn to quiet my own mind, how can I appreciate the quiet around me.

So, maybe it’s time for some practical work here. Less noise in my life. Less noise in my mind. But the question is, how will I go about doing this. Perhaps I should start by finding that “menial task” to do each night, since it seems to help. I’m not sure what I’ll come up with, but I think it’s worth a try.