Deep down the soul longs for itself and for a quiet course, a secret way. Could we foster something new in our lives without forcing? The dramatic is so fetching. We are lured by its splash and energy. But the soul waits faithfully, not for drama but for moments of true attention.
All the stuff we have loved and sought surrounds us. We did it! Yes, indeed. But has that really satisfied us? I remember my bed-ridden Dad towards the end of his life looking out the window and telling me softly, “I just want to see the chestnuts in bloom again.”
There’s a difference between loneliness and solitude. In loneliness we want someone to be with us. It can sometimes feel like a desperate need. In solitude we are “with” ourselves, a deep and trusted companionship that is always full of possibility.
To all moms . . . HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! To be a mom is a job of joy, stress, challenge and privilege. Today let’s honor the ongoing job and let a time of quiet mother us so we can keep doing the job with as much grace as possible.
There are those of us who are “morning persons” that seek the silence found in the early morning as the dark slowly changes into light. That time opens us to whatever there isn’t room for in our usual busy days. Without that time, we are subtly beside ourselves throughout the waking hours. Any one close to us can feel it.
“Night” people are like “morning people “only they embrace the dark as life enhancing, as a sanctuary when no one is likely to interrupt them at 2 A.M. They just have a different clock.
It is in quiet that we reset our nervous systems. It is in quiet that our breathing deepens, and we lean into spaciousness where there is room to simply be.
For some people silence and the lack of constant stimulation is frightening. Noise and distractions are like life preservers for them. Without them it is as if they are alone and have fallen out of reality. Many addictions arise from that state of fear.
There are some people who exude a quiet joy, a nevertheless-peace when things are tough. I think of them as hummers. They are like bees pollinating possibilities. Did you know that humming is a soft and quiet way to settle our nervous systems? Maybe it is one way to become a pollinator with a quiet joy inside.
Quiet has a loudness all its own. We’ve all heard about “the still small voice” that can transform anything. To cultivate an inner quiet is not just for us. It nourishes others without a word being spoken.
Maybe it’s time to experiment and let the sound of a whispered “shshshshsshsh” on a long exhalation be a thing to try. Let that quiet encouragement bring you a soothing mantle of peace, a soft, loving sense of being nonverbally held and told “all will be well”
Quiet isn’t necessarily about no noise. It’s more about not being knocked off our centers by being reactive. Do you think it’s possible to have deep inner stillness while chaos roams around us? I believe it’s possible and it’s also a miracle when it is achieved.
I smile when I discover again and again that being quiet is first an invitation to hear all of my inner noise and secondly, it’s a chance for me to love the mess into a quiet livable flow.
In my experience to enter a true quiet is to enter a silent, wordless experience of sensing that the beyond is always here and full of waiting grace.