In the Stillness

by Jennifer DePriest

In the stillness before the dawn, the world sounds like a symphony. The crickets are the strings. Far off, the rooster cries, like horns, to add drama to the piece. The slow, steady conversation between the frogs in the freshly filled creek makes you wish you could understand what they were saying. Stars dot the sky, like white lights on a Christmas tree in a home filled with stillness before Christmas morning awakes. In the distance, there is a hum on the highway as tires take people to their early morning jobs. Jobs that must be essential these days. I stop and pray for their journey. Pray for their day. Pray for their families. Because life can change so much in a day, in an hour, in a minute …

Even my coffee tastes better this morning. As I switched on my string of Edison lights, I couldn’t help but smile. It’s not that my coffee is different, maybe the light bulb has just come on in my own life, enlightening my senses even more to life around me. Maybe sheltering at home has allowed me to get some much needed rest, even in the midst of working. Maybe being alone with my thoughts in the quiet of my prayers has allowed Him to whisper truth into my ears that I can feel in my soul.

To truly lean into the words that swirl around my creative brain, maybe I needed the stillness of this moment in time to bring them to light on the canvas of my computer screen. As I help my character find her way through life, maybe I, too, am finding my way. Maybe it’s okay to be a late bloomer after all, because in blooming late, we have had time for life to fertilize our little parts of the world around us and feed into our souls … so when the light bulb turns on, and the world can see the bouquet of beauty we have become, then, the beauty of God will also shine through, allowing the song of our testimony to be the symphony in someone else’s life in the stillness of an early morning.

XO,
Jen