Tag Archives: Stillness

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A Great Companion

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“Stillness is vital to the world of the soul. If as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion. The fragments of your life will have time to unify, and the places where your soul-shelter is wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal. You will be able to return to yourself. In this stillness, you will engage your soul. Many people miss out on themselves completely as they journey through life. They know others, they know places, they know skills, they know their work, but tragically, they do not know themselves at all. Aging can be a lovely time of ripening when you actually meet yourself, indeed maybe for the first time. There are beautiful lines from T. S. Eliot that say:
‘And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
-John O’Donohue
Excerpt from the book, Anam Cara
Flowers, Home, Inspiring Words, Nature, Photography, Sweet Breathing

Between Our Breaths

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“Even in movement there is stillness                                                      If we would but awaken.

Between our breaths                                                                       breathing in and breathing out,                                                    Between the blinking of our eyes                                                        and the beating of our heart,

In that space,                                                                                                  as time begins falling into the timeless                                                We focus on that still point                                                                    and cross the threshold

Awareness rises.”

-Bob Holmes

 

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The One Breath

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The definition of prayer by Hildegard of Bingen,

“Breathing in and breathing out the one breath of the Universe.”

-Hildegard of Bingen

Prayer indeed.  While saying thank you, the most essential prayer.

Mark Nepo in his chapter “A Reality That Keeps Unfolding,” in Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, says of the breath of prayer:

“This is listening with our entire being. It speaks to an immersion of attention that all the traditions aspire to; each claiming in its own way that peace resides in this completeness which arises when our individual sense of being merges with the ongoing stream of being that is the heartbeat of the Universe. Whether these moments arise from great stillness or great suffering or great love, they all seem unexpected and seem to depend on our ability to hold nothing back.”

Timely words in these days of stillness, suffering and great love that we all are experiencing around our planet. Today, may you find this peace residing in completeness with the heartbeat of the Universe as you navigate your new normal.

Hold nothing back.

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Quiet as a Feather

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“Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word.
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.

The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.

But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.

Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.”

-Mary Oliver

“Let me be as a feather. Strong with purpose yet light at heart, able to bend. And, though I might become frayed, able to pull myself together again.”

Anita Sams

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In the Stillness of the Trees I Am at Home

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“I will wait here in the fields to see how well the rain brings on the grass.

In the labor of the fields longer than a man’s life I am at home. Don’t come with me. You stay home too.

I will be standing in the woods where the old trees move only with the wind and then with gravity.

In the stillness of the tress I am at home. Don’t come with me.

You stay at home too.”

-Wendell Berry

 

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And the People Stayed Home

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These words by Kitty O’Meara resonated with me deeply.  Kitty has a blog called “The Daily Round”: https://the-daily-round.com/

“And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
“And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.”

-Kitty O’Meara

 

Sweet Breathing

Hear the Stir of a Single Snowflake

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“May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.

May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow.

May your grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar of earth’s fiery core.

May you grow still enough to hear the stir of  a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.”

-Brother David Steindl Rast

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Magnificent Refuge

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“This magnificent refuge is inside you. Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway. Be bold. Be humble. Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you. Ask no permission from the authorities. Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home.”

-St. Teresa of Avila