When the Noise No Longer Has My Attention

I’ll keep going back.
Not to escape life, but to remember who gives it.
Peace was never lost.
I just forgot where to look.

I have always loved the mountains. Waking up early, seeing the sunrise, feeling the crisp cool clean air, and taking a deep breath. I always felt revived and refreshed when I was out getting lost in the vastness of the landscape.

I never really understood what pulled me toward the mountains. I used to give simple answers, but I wanted to know why it felt deeper. After some prayer and reflection, I found the answer I didn’t know I was searching for.

It’s peace. But it’s deeper than that, more profound. Let me explain.

Peace doesn’t come when the noise stops. It comes when the noise no longer has your attention.

When I get out there, away from everything that demands my attention, I can finally breathe again. Nothing in my life has changed, but my focus has. It’s like God quietly shifts my grip from control to trust.

The noise doesn’t vanish. You still have the same life, the same thoughts, the same worries. But something shifts. Your attention moves. You stop trying to manage or fix everything and you’re simply present. Everything around you is steady and still, and in that stillness, your soul remembers how to be still too.

Peace in that moment isn’t the absence of noise. It’s the redirection of focus.

So when I head to the mountains, wake up early, and hike three hours to see a sunrise, when I stand on top and look out over the vast landscape before me, what’s really happening in those moments isn’t that the noise fades. It’s that I stop feeding it. I remember that peace was never gone. It was just buried under distraction.

So this is a call to everyone looking for something more. Give a hike a chance. Get out in the mountains. Go somewhere the noise becomes quiet and let the silence become peace.

I’ll keep going back.
Not to escape life, but to remember who gives it.
Peace was never lost.
I just forgot where to look.