“Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? Or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause of a room full of people when someo…
Blog posts : "silence"
Surprise Pleasure
Two summers ago I helped my mom with her garden, lifting the heavy potting soil bag, fetching trowels, gloves, and weed bags, digging holes...it was okay, I didn't mind helping. Loved being outside, of course.
Last summer, my mom's back and hip being worse, I did a lot more. The usual going for …
Green Buzz
After letting thoughts fall away,
the resplendent green of the leaves and grasses
exude love, felt in every cell of the body.
Not the basic self-love of survival,
or of the tribal fire.
Not the burn of erotic passions, or desire,
and not the love - wonderful as it might be -…
Practical Psylence
Sometimes when out walking, I let my thoughts fall to the Earth and rest there. This gives my overheated neurons and stress hormones a break while I enjoy an intimate connection with everything around me. Emotions settle, perception clears, as my perspective temporarily dissipates in a sense of onen…
Psylent Reverie
Psylence, or quieting the mind, does not necessarily mean meditative moments of no thought - though those moments are quite blissful.
Psylence can be listening intently to what someone is saying, instead of thinking about how to respond. It could mean choosing to listen without responding at all.…
A Hawk's Cry
I weave in and out of the trees or
circle about them
creating a snowshoe pattern
much like the loop-de-looping path of a fly
sometimes laughing for no reason
sometimes stopping to exchange being-ness with a tree
sometimes enjoying the shooshing of my shoes
a hawk's cry, the cold air on my f…
Cold and Clear
Today: below-zero cold, about 2 feet of snow cover, clear blue sky.
Days like this remind me of awareness, intuition, and revelation - because of the space between bare tree branches, and the more visible horizon - because the sun's rays travel un-refracted through the dry, crisp air - and the…
Honk, Honk
It's been awhile since I last posted. Though enjoying the many simple pleasures of daily life, I have felt world weary and reluctant to add one more voice, even a well intentioned one, to the online conversation.
Yet, here I am once again - with my cat curled on my lap, acting as my mews - tappi…
Late Fall's Gift
A few scarlet and yellow leaves cling to their branches, fluttering embers of fall's cool fire. The countryside has faded to its late autumn brown and tan jacket, and when collared by grey skies it makes plain the tranquility of a quiet mind. As our penchant for color and bright beauty finds rest, t…
Beginnings
Someone recently asked me how and when I started practicing mindfulness. It was long before I'd ever heard of it.
My appreciation of a quiet mind began decades ago when first reading The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. The book helped me eliminate what I called my "garbag…
Not About Me Times Three
Spending time in silence teaches you that thinking is unnecessary, most of the time, and that life goes on when you cease weaving everything that happens into your personal story. Like yesterday - a day of interesting circumstances.
First, a battery operated clock that ran out of juice a week…
More Typically . . .
A quiet mind is not an escape from the fortunes of life. In silence, joy or transcendent tranquility can arise, we might rub elbows with intelligence, or get an inkling of who we are. More typically, psylence allows for an awareness of ordinariness, and any physical and emotional sensations occurrin…
Spacing Out on the Patio
Psylence, or a quiet mind, is not just the absence of sound, it is space—the space between our thoughts.
There is space between the night sky's stars, between the forest's abundance of trees, and the leaves or needles of each tree. If we allow it, there is space between the events of a day, a…
De-cluttering
We can imagine an ocean wave washing across our mind, just as one washes up and over the shore. As the water recedes back into the fulness of an imaginary ocean (lake, sea) it takes with it everything that clutters a mind: irritations, preferences, prejudices, assumptions, knowledge, and worries. Ah…
Just Listen
Maybe the easiest way to psylence is listening. Giving our self over to listening, thinking stops. If we are thinking, we are not given over to listening.
When thinking stops, relationship begins, and relationship with what-is is a pleasure often left behind with childhood.
When listening, …
Deep Silence
Sometimes, if feeling irritable, restless, or frustrated (or all three) it helps to close the eyes and sit in the silence of the bottom of the sea, the ocean depths, supported by sound-cancelling water.
Movement is slower there, and the roil of emotion and feeling remains at the surface. Whether…
Heart Intelligence
Heart intelligence is the force or impulse behind cooperation and compassion. It is powerful, relentless, and though not always sweet it is inherently loving—it seeks wholeness. It urges us to feed and water our potential as a gift to ourself and others.
While our thinking mind naturally…
Paradoxical Flakes
There is a gentle snow falling today. It's lovely how the movement of free-falling flakes makes the world more still, and the flakes' soundless smack down makes silence louder.
Sitting with Longing
Sometimes quiet is the bare tree outside my window stretching into the pale gray winter sky, the branches full of longing for nothing in particular. Maybe, longing is simply desire at rest, yet simmering with anticipation—an awareness of blossoming and fruition during a fallow season. Longing is aki…
New Surroundings
When you move from a location you have lived in for 30 years to a new home in a different state a lot changes, and nothing changes. For instance, saying goodbye to the amazing trees that lined the path of your frequent walks for years is difficult (for some of us). Yet, trees in the new surroundings…
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