When the mind is quiet
we might notice that trees have unique voices.
Those with soft, thin leaves whisper
in a tossing wind,
while those with thick, sturdy, or crisp leaves can make themselves heard
with the gentlest of zephyrs.
You might feel trees' speech though leaf language is wordl…
when you look up, at say,
a pot of red and white striped petunias
bright in the afternoon sun
and see a being there,
or when the perfect circle
of a Robin's nest
delicately lined with soft straw
briefly arrests your circle of breath,
or when an earnest bee
buzzes about the rose bloo…
First, let your thoughts drop
like brown pine needles
to the ground.
Then, let the leaves, grass, and evergreens
teach you the frequency of their color.
Let it into bone, each organ,
long and short muscle, glands, nails,
loin, and ligaments,
Until each cell knows it.
“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…
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 …
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 -…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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, …
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 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…
