The Sounds of Silence

For the last four months, I have had construction happening almost every day on my home. Fences, gutters, drains, walls, concrete, and small out buildings have kept my yard and activities messy and hard to organize. Today, there is silence. It is allowing me to think about how pleasant my life is when things slow down and return to routine and predictable.
Quality of life is not just about having money or a clean environment. It is also about having some control over your time and energy. It is about having some way of directing your life to accomplish the goals you want to see happen. Right now I am starting to clean up the mess of some of this energy. While trying to make goals happen, a big pile of stuff got moved around, dumped or shifted so that not one part of my yard is useable without struggle. This is because the Goal has not been reached, only started. It takes a long time to get all this work done.
So now, it is time to focus energy on clean up, but also focus energy on pushing away distractions and "disturbing" influences. The EVIL EYE. (Not to be confused with the Chicken Eye.) The Evil Eye is silent but directs discomfort and distress toward the person it falls on. At least that is what the stories seem to suggest. What I find is that the Evil Eye actually triggers internal struggle over good and evil causing people to choose bad behaviors over good ones. Like not telling the truth over truthfulness. Or avarice and envy over contentment with ones earned goods. There are many ways to attract the Evil Eye.
So how do you protect yourself from this "fluence". Honestly, it is a constant struggle. Vanity and pride will cause you to think you can be done with it with little effort. But the reality is that these influences will challenge you all your life in one way or another. I find that I need silence sometimes so that I can focus myself on my goals and not get swayed by these influences- like greed or envy. In the course of my construction, I have chosen to keep things simple and functional. But sometimes, the wildly ornate, showy, and expensive pops up and wants to be my friend. Everyone seems to have an expensive and elaborate idea for my yard. Truly, I can come up with my own wild expenses. I don't need other ideas. But keeping other people from influencing my designs and plans is very hard.
We are nearing the final building segment and the irrigation plan with landscape plants. Do I want the most expensive sprinklers or drip lines or bubbler or conventional timers? Am I going solar? Is there stained glass windows in my future? Maybe some of those invisible screens and some awnings or electric shades? Where is that catalog with all the fancy home designs? Exactly what I don't need.
So as I try to avoid sales pitches and other people's designs, I am also trying to solidify what I want and what can be done on my budget.
Sometimes, I think I have it under control. But I know I must be vigilant even so. The work happening here is what I will have till the end of my time. I want it to be right for me and my sweetheart husband.  Thankfully, I have a day of silence to sort out my thoughts and get my energy focused on our goals.