I hushed the wiggly group of children seated on the carpet all around me. It was time to read aloud to them. “Listen,”I said. They listened—nothing to hear. “That’s my favorite sound,” I said. One little sweetie raised her hand and said, “You mean, your favorite sound is….nothing?” That’s right, I responded. “Let’s read.”

I was playing with them, of course. And they knew it. But there was some truth inside the words. Our lives are noisy. It’s hard to make space for solitude and quiet. But you need it and so do your children.

It’s a learning curve, that quest for quiet. Help your children create a quiet space each day. It may be reading time or just time to play quietly and let creativity take over. It may be time for a quiet stroll outside or to sit in a beautiful place in the yard or on the deck and just plain think. Or read. Or write.

It takes effort to capture quiet space. You have to turn off the television, the music and the screens. You have to stop folding laundry and planning a mental grocery list. You have to decide to turn off the noise in your head. You have to tell yourself to slow down and feed your soul.

Stop. Decide. Create a beautiful quiet space and go there for a while.