I cherish the memory of an incident that took place many years ago when I was the exhausted young mother of a challenging three-year-old girl and her lively redheaded infant brother.
On this particularly chaotic day, I reached breaking point. Loudly asserting my need for “just a little peace and quiet,” I popped the baby into his crib and marched sassy Sarah to her room for quiet time before collapsing on the couch with a magazine and cup of tea.
A few minutes later Sarah crept out of her room, cradling in her hands her most precious treasure: a tiny gilded cardboard gift box. Tiptoeing up to me, she proffered this peace offering.
I opened it to find…nothing. Just an empty box.
“What’s this?” I asked.
Smiling softly, she whispered “It’s a piece of quiet.”
– Jacqui Graham
