Enjoy the Silence

A day of squirrel brain left me discouraged and thinking. I felt like I had lost all focus. I had run out of things to say. I realized the problem was just too much noise. I've always got background noise, whether I want it or not. Usually the noise is actual noise like people talking, phones ringing, music playing, or a video game blazing in the other room. But sometimes the most disturbing noise is the noise of checking Facebook, or texting, or reading a magazine that only gives me anxiety about the world around me and my shortcomings in it.
Today I decided to just be quiet. I am here writing, but that is the only interface with technology I am allowing myself today. This afternoon, my husband and son were gone for almost three hours. My daughter and I sat at the kitchen table and doodled with our art supplies. It was so quiet I could hear the ice trays being refilled in the refrigerator. The glorious silence was short-lived, as the boys returned clomping in cleats, crunching chips with their mouths open, and in all ways making the kitchen theirs.
But the quiet time helped. I remembered where I was going and got back on my path.
I started no big projects today, but concentrated on the act of making and getting my hands moving. It felt good.
I made a sheet of eyes to use in future projects.

After painting them with watercolor paint, I cut them out and put them in a box. So now I have a box of eyeballs whenever I need them.
I found it appropriate to spend a day making eyes. No ears, no mouth. Just what is needed for looking, watching, and seeing what I needed to see.