Hear the Music.

I lead a busy life. I'm not in school, so granted my "busy" looks completely different than the average nineteen year old student. But it's "busy", nonetheless.

This last week I have forced myself to simply be SLOW. Getting a nasty stomach flu aided in that, but seriously: it's been great to just sit and rest. To just "be". To think. To pray. Really pray. For family. For friends. For the children. To meditate on God's promises to me. To humbly ask for help.

To be quiet. To listen.

See, sometimes, when I'm writing, I get stuck. My thoughts and creative juices reach a halt. So, I get up from my little nook... and I go attempt to fix it. I'll go outside, breathe deeply, and attempt to remove my mind completely from the words. I'll wash dishes. I'll turn on some of my favorite tunes real loud. I'll bake. I'll go to the mirror and see what I can do with my hair.

Most of the time, that works. But sometimes, I just have to wait. An hour, a day, a week. I have to wait to go back to the words. Why?

Because words can get stale. Words and music hold special, beautiful places in my heart. In many ways, music are my words. And words are my music. and if you lose the music, you just need to stop.

But always, there's a melody burning in my heart just waiting to be shared. The beauty in music and words has been engraved and woven through my soul... so the music will never be lost all together.

Yet still- sometimes you just need to step away. Stop trying to write.

Maybe you're trying to write a literal book, facebook status, or letter to a friend.

Or maybe you're trying to write a new beginning, a mended relationship, or freedom from anxiety.

For me, I'm either taking meticulous notes of my life and putting it into words... or life is coming at me real hard, and I'm internalizing it.

My life gets so jam-packed with voices that my processor gets slow. Scenes, ideas, relationships, even, can muffle the way we hear, the way we see, the way we listen. So sometimes, writing it out... working it out... is such a great way to hear better, to see better, to listen better. But every once in a while, more often that we care to admit, voicing it actually drowns out the beautiful, anointed music we need to be listening for.

Words can dull the way we live if we're always speaking just to speak. Writing just to write. Living in complete abandonment before God, completely open and submitted to His will, listening for His voice... that's how the music enters in. That's how it takes up a permanent residence in my soul. In my heart. When my daily cry became "more of You, and less of me, Jesus."

LIVING for the right things. That's where the music comes from. That's where the words come from.

But when we stop writing for a while, it doesn't mean we aren't writers. It just means we're listening to the music, realizing the captivating beauty in a whole new way.

Writing is a huge release for me. So is speaking. and I'm talking about REAL conversation. I used to say that I didn't know what I thought until I was able to write it out. Or talk it out. And usually? That's very much true. I am a verbal processor, through and through.

But the truth is, I've verbalized a lot of ugly things that weren't true in a measly effort to process. to understand. to be heard.

I'm learning a lesson more and more all the time. It's that silence? Sometimes it's the best things for our hearts. for our souls.

And what is ultimately good for our souls... is what's good for our lives. for our writing. It all works together.

There are treasure chests and uncovered beauty in every nook and cranny of our lives- tears of thankfulness rolling down an expectant momma's cheek, the paintbrush catching the ray of light as red pours over the canvas, the smell of glue and marshmallows when you walk into the house down the street- and a good writer takes note of this.

It's the little things, the sweet details, that create. Create the pianissimos, the breaks, the strings, the cymbals, the dynamic overture, the beat.

Do what it takes to hear the music.

Sit. Be. Listen.

... and then write.

Love to you,
Alyssa :)