I work from home, which means I work in an extremely chaotic workplace. I frequently have to lock my office door and put on headphones. Still I hear children banging on my door. I hear children crying, and Mary yelling at some child who has just disobeyed her. It can be crazy. Just hearing the chaos can put me on edge. This is especially true when I’m trying to meditate or pray. It’s almost impossible.
I often wish I had an office where I could just disappear to and get away from all the chaos and stress of my home life. Nothing bad is going on at home, it’s just we have three children 5 or under. And it was as I was thinking about this that I’ve concluded stay-at-home moms (or dads) who can maintain semblance of a spiritual life are spiritual super-heros.
There is nothing that makes a peace-filled contemplative spirituality more difficult than a child who won’t clean her room, an infant who just blew out his diaper, and another child who asks 350 questions an hour. It can be maddening, literally. If you can maintain a reflective connection with God in the midst of this chaos you are extraordinarily spiritual.
The only way that I can even hope to achieve this sort of spiritual depth is by finding times to get away. I need to practice silence when there actually is some. I need to get enough sleep. I need to take my sabbaths. I need to get away and receive love from God in the silence so that I have the capacity to give love to others in the chaos.