My goodness...it's so LOUD out there, isn't it?
I need the stillness of the early morning even more now. I need to know there really are peaceful things in the world, things not yelling and clawing and thrashing for our attention, things that are just there...just being.
I need to focus (quite literally) on the quiet things.
I think the librarians sense that we've all got a collective headache right now, that our nerves are on the very edge. When I walked in to our town library yesterday, this book was prominently on display:
I knocked over two little old ladies to get to it.
(Kidding.)
(See? I had to actually tell you that I was joking, because these days, it seems like any whacked-out thing can happen.)
Anyway: back to the book. It's great. A tonic for the times. I gobbled it up in one sitting. So many nuggets of wisdom, like this one below that inspired me to make a photocollage (calming in itself), from Admiral Richard E. Byrd after he spent five months alone in a shack in the Antarctic:
It's a short book, but there's a fair amount about musician Leonard Cohen spending years in a Buddhist monastery and finding out that "going nowhere isn't about turning your back on the world; it's about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply."
I've written here before about going on a news diet. Lately, I seem to be on a "binge and purge" cycle: Consume the morning news about all of the awfulness that took place while I was fretfully sleeping; feel nauseated and mad at myself for checking the news; retreat to an area (usually outdoors) with no news at all.
I mentally and physically need these retreats from the news. As Pico Iyer writes, "Not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays, it's often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize."
I'm not saying to withdraw from the world completely. In fact, it seems more important than ever that we pay attention to what's going on so we can collectively take the reins. But I do recommend, in these loud times, that we all mindfully envelop ourselves in silence, daily. Closing with more wise words from Pico Iyer:
"The point of gathering stillness is not to enrich the sanctuary or mountaintop but to bring that calm into the motion, the commotion of the world."
I hope you'll run, not walk, to your local library for this book. Careful of the little old ladies, though.
***********************************************************
Before you go...
- Did you enjoy this post? Get more like it by subscribing to Joyfully Green via email or RSS reader: just click here.
© 2016 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com LLC. All rights reserved. All photos and text digitally fingerprinted and watermarked. Please do not use any photographs without asking me first for permission at [email protected] and then clearly linking back to this site with photo credits. Site licensed by Creative Commons.
Comments