“Walking,
I am listening
to a deeper way.
Suddenly
all my ancestors
are behind me.
Be still, they say,
Watch and listen.
You are the result of the love of thousands.”
-Linda Hogan
“The woods are lovely,
dark and deep,
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.”
-Robert Frost
Werifesteria – Old English – Verb
-to wander longingly through the forest in search of mystery
“Winter’s icy grip
Encapsulating free form
Frozen memories.”
-Kata Boro
“february ice
hangs from the bare tree branches –
walks in still nature.”
-Viv Wigley
There is solace to be found, always.
May you find your solace even amidst chaos and uncertainty, at the abiding center of yourself, deep inside.
My solace is found in silence, writing, books, animals, simplicity, music, friendship, laughter and nature, yes, these are my places. Those sweet things that resonate to the core of being.
Yes, there is solace to be found.
“..i spill into
the kind of silence
only Khalil Gibran would understand.”-Sanober Khan
“Writing is the supreme solace.”
-W. Somerset Maugham
“Find joy and solace in the simple, and cultivate your utopia by felling the Tao in every cubic inch of space.”
-Wayne Dyer
“Books can be a source of solace…”
-Michael Dirda
“I find solace in animals. I have a stray dog at home called Candy. I picked it up while I w as waiting at the airport one day. I always wanted to have a “macho” dog but got this sweet little thing instead.”
-Randeep Hooda
“Music has always been a great solace for me. It’s still something that gives me far more joy than movies, I must say. I love movies too. But somehow, music can transport you. There are so many different kinds of experiences you can have with music.”
-Allison Anders
“Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of a sister?”
-Alice Walker
“Nature has been for me, for as long as I remember, source of solace, inspiration, adventure, and delight; a home, a teacher, a companion.
-Lorraine Anderson
“I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
-Anne Frank
“Laughter heals, gives solace, and is life enhancing.”
-Liz Carpenter
How lovely to find quotes for each and every one of my special solaces….
“My heart is tuned to the quietness that the stillness of nature inspires.”
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
I hope you can take time to savor these sumptuous words from Matt Licata, and absorb with wonder this new winter day…
“On this new winter day, it is so easy to take for granted that tomorrow will come – that another opportunity will be given to witness a sunrise, to breathe into the heart, to be astonished at the crystals in the newly fallen snow, to share a moment of attuned connection with the bunnies on our morning walk.
But another part of us knows it is so fragile here, so tenuous, and that this opening into life will not be here for much longer. Recognizing this, let us surrender the dream of postponement by doing whatever we can to help others, by being fully here and entering into the dark and into the light with them, no longer apologizing for our uniqueness, our sensitivity, and the gifts of our embodied vulnerability.
At the end of this life – which is sure to come much sooner than we’d like – it is unlikely we’ll ask if we accomplished the tasks on our to-do lists, completed some mythical journey of ‘awakening,’ perfected ourselves, ‘healed’ our past, played it safe, got all of our ‘needs’ met, made it big, ‘manifested’ everything we wanted, or achieved all of our goals.
Inside these hearts there may be only one burning question: how well did I love?
Did I pause each day to behold the wonder of just one unfolding here and now moment? Was I willing to take a risk, to feel more, to care so deeply about this life, to let another matter, and to honor *this* very experience, exactly as it has been given?
Did I stay close with the mysterious movement of both sweet and fierce grace as it took form as the others in my life, and as the wisdom flow of feeling, of emotion, and of sensation in this body? Was I willing to fall in love, to truly fall in love with this life, exactly as it is? Was I willing to provide a home, a sanctuary, and safe passage for all of me, an environment of wholeness and integration to dance, rest, and play in?
Was I willing to set aside the unending need to make this moment different?
What is it that remains unlived… for you? How have you been holding back? What are you waiting for? What are the feelings you must re-embody to in order to fully come alive here?
The bounty and the harvest of this world is upon you. It is always already here, erupting in the here and now, and is not waiting. The spell of the ‘next moment’ has been broken.
I hope I make it all the way through this sweetest of ever winter days, but if for some reason I do not, this would have been enough. I have been given so much more than enough.”
-Matt Licata
“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter.
It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.”
-Rumi
The peace and quiet that is winter, allows the deeper recesses of ourselves to be wholly alive, riotous even!
Exploring the inner spaces is never ending…
“…as long as I can walk up the trail behind the house, or as long as I can go out into the yard and look up at the stars, I’ll never be unhappy, never. Not just count my blessings, but shout them.”
-Rick Bass, Winter (notes from Montana)
“Were I called upon to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist.”
-Edgar Allan Poe
“The joy of looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
-Albert Einstein
It snowed all day today, March 10th.
This event was met with dismay by every other human that I know – but not by me!
Why can’t I get enough snow? I’m not ready for winter to be over…
(I haven’t said this out loud to any other person).
The writer, Rick Bass
understands what snow can mean, does mean, to this human be-ing (me). I was reading his Winter (notes from Montana) this afternoon as the big flakes fell steadily and silently down.
Continually. Rhythmically. Silently. Magically.
Bass writes from his perspective as a native Texan of his first Montana winter and his immersion in snow:
“I’ll never get used to snow – how slowly it comes down, how the world seems to slow down, how time slows… I don’t mind the cold. The beauty is worth it”.
“I watch individual flakes; I peer up through the snow and see the blank infinity from which it comes; I listen to the special silence it creates.”
“I stand outside in the snow for long periods of time, in the middle of it, looking out: I cannot believe I am so rich, getting all this snow…. Everything’s so quiet.”
“It’s more like an afterlife. I never dreamed I would live in a hard country away from people, with such quietness.”
Re-reading, then typing his words, helps me to understand why I’m hanging on to winter and to snow. I crave more of that special silence, that feeling of richness, that comes in the sweetness of falling flakes and under the snow blanket they create. Even with the slowing of time, the season went so quickly, too fast.
Spring will come and I will relish the unearthing and the rebirth all ‘round. But not yet. For a few more days let me feel all the depth, serenity and solitude of winter.
