Sarah Clarkson: Reclaiming Quiet in a Noisy World
Quiet is something difficult to find in our modern world. We are bombarded with crowded schedules, constant availability through screens and information overload. The noise can be deafening. We think “quiet” is a luxury we can’t afford and yet it’s necessary for our souls to thrive.
Sarah Clarkson delves into the transformative power of quiet. Drawing inspiration from her own journey and her latest book, Reclaiming Quiet: Cultivating a Life of Holy Attention, Sarah reflects on the profound connection between stillness, healing, and spiritual renewal. She explores why quiet is vital for both the body and soul and how embracing small, quiet moments can lead to a more peaceful life. She also shares practical ways to find and embrace moments of quiet in daily life.
Sarah Clarkson is an author and blogger who writes regularly about literature, faith and beauty. She studied theology at Oxford and is the author and co-author of six books, including This Beautiful Truth. She has an active following on Instagram where she hosts regular live read-alouds from the poems, novels, or essays that bring her courage. She can often be found with a good cup of tea and a book in hand in her old English vicarage home in Oxford, where she lives with her Anglican vicar husband, Thomas, and their 4 children.
Instagram @SarahWanders
Quotes:
“If I can’t be quiet, then I can’t listen. And if I can’t listen, then how am I going to hear the voice of God speaking within me?”
“If what was required to be quiet was that I have lots of time and lots of discipline to kind of attain quiet as a feat, then it was something that was not going to be available to me. Nor is it going to be available to very many people that I knew in the modern world.”
“Quiet is not a feat we accomplish. It’s a homeland we return to.”
“God waits at every moment to meet with us, to speak with us.”
“I think a real moment of conviction for me was realizing that the iPhone had become a replacement to me for the Holy Spirit. It had become the great comforter.”
“I think there’s an aspect of our increasing screen dependance that we’re just losing out on the richness of what it means to be human, the way God created us.”
“I think that there is a way of living that invites us into a moment-by-moment encounter with God’s goodness in the smallest details of our ordinary.”
“Quiet is recognized across all disciplines as being good for the human body and soul.”
“Quiet is also the place where we have the capacity to imagine, to create.”
“Treasure the small moments.”
“Every single person bears something they have been given by God to bring into the world, something matchless.”
