Silence

When was the last time that you were able to experience the silence that makes your ears hum because it is so quiet? In modern times we are deluged with sounds and some are terming it sound pollution. We have computers, radio, TV, MP3’s playing in our ears. The noise level has become deafening. It is a rare moment when we have an opportunity to be completely in the silence.

When was the last time you were able to quiet your mind and still all the incessant thoughts that are buzzing around in there?  Some people have mastered the ability to meditate and still their mind to the point of finding the observant one beneath the ocean of internal and external noise

But most have not. They are caught in a world of flurry, forced busyness and constant bombardment. There is no time to think! There is no time to go beyond thinking.

Being outdoors in the Garden without all our modern contraptions- sitting by the lake, walking among trees, climbing a mountain, or kneeling in the dirt of the manmade garden, can be our transportation into the Silence. Sitting outside under the starry canopy or under a tent while it is raining can help us to  get quiet enought to remember that we have a vast inner life waiting to be explored. Even creating an oasis, a quiet room where all external sounds are silenced can help bring you to the place where you can still your mind. What you find there is your own treasure. A secret joy waiting for you to discover it.

When the day comes that you realize that what you have been pursuing is meaningless, it is time to turn and look back at what your life has been trying to show you. The answer is not out there somewhere ahead, the answer is within you and has always been.  Your life has left you clues all along the way but you in your hurry rushed past them, ignoring the important for the unimportant. At times you caught a glimpse of meaning in what was happening but all too soon you raced on to the next big thing- a romance, a job, a trip, a new hobby, a new passion; whatever it was that promised you a dream. A dream of yourself as more than who you are- smarter perhaps, more talented, richer, greater, whatever it was that gave you the thrill of the hunt. When one path failed, you quickly caught another whiff of potential success and off you ran again, only to land up in the same place. Again.  On and on you went until you arrived, back at yourself. If you are now finally ready, it is time to be still and know that you are not and never have been the one in charge. There is a part of you that knows and knew all along, your observant self who has watched you run about, ever on the search, knowing that soon enough your search would end and you would recognize that all paths lead back to you.

Imagine a world

where everyone set-aside their own personal agenda and concentrated on finding the best for both themselves and others,

where everyone’s needs were met,

where everyone has a place and is recognized for their contributions equally.

where people seek the similarities in themselves as opposed to the differences

where people love each other for the ways they are different.

where people seek to help others and to help the Garden

We can do this. We were created for this.  The evidence is there when disaster strikes. We find within us a hidden power to accomplish the impossible when we are challenged to do so.  

Nothing hold us back from beginning. There’s something about being in a room with a group of people that have a common purpose stemming from love. In a lifetime a person seldom experiences this kind of energy but it is there. There’s electricity that runs through the air. That electricity is multiplied exponentially.  When people are energized like this, there’s nothing that they can’t do. People put aside their personal games, their personal animosity and come together to find a solution, come together to overcome the impossible. The impossible becomes the possible.

To do it  we need  only to imagine it, we need only to believe in it and we need  only to start with ourselves.

It’s a new day

It’s a brand-new day

The sun rose in the morning

It’s shining high in the sky.

Does it wonder what it should do today

Does it worry that maybe it won’t be able to do it

Does it look forward to doing something different Is it unhappy with itself

Does it tell itself I’m bored

 Is the sun unsatisfied with any part of itself?

The sun is the sun

Could you imagine If the sun didn’t want to be the sun

Could you imagine If the sun decided to be something different

Where would the world be then?

It’s a new day

It’s a brand-new day

You got up this morning

You are shining.

You are you

Where would the world be without you?

“Gardens are not made by singing “oh, how beautiful and sitting in the shade.” Rudyard Kipling

We know this. We appreciate the garden. Whether in person or in a picture, we can look at a garden and instinctively know that a lot of work went into creating it. We look at the design and see the creativity of the designer. We look at the layout and we know the care that went into planting each seed and bulb. We know that there is a lot of weed pulling and watering and nurture that goes into keeping the garden looking its finest. We feel the beauty that emanates from a perfectly planned garden; we smell the essence of flower scents. Our senses are delighted and we know something of the garden’s designer even if we do not who it is.  We agree with Kipling – gardens are not made by chance- springing into being.

We know this. The magnificent garden that is earth must have a designer, a creator, an intelligence that brings together all that is. We see the care that has gone into the development of each animal, plant, structure and person. We know that for this world to survive despite us, there must be nurture that makes it so. We experience the beauty that exists for our enjoyment every day. Our senses, although dulled by our own inventions, can still be delighted by the red sky in the morning or the pink and blue hues of the sun going down at night or the touching caress of a beloved pet. We know the designer even when we do not. Always there, always within our grasp, always available if we pause to look and listen.

We know this. We each are a plant in the garden. With each passing moment we become more of the essence that is us. Each day we grow within the garden as a plant grows within the garden, minutely changing. But we err in believing that it is our garden, our own creation. We cultivate our thoughts and feelings and give no heed to the one who planted us here, the one who nurtures us, the one who gives us what we need to live another day, the one who tends us, the one who loves us. 

Gardens are not made by singing o how beautiful and sitting in the shade

It is the end of the day, the kind of day where you look up at the stars and wonder if other people in other places in the world are looking up and see their constellations and feeling the same way you are feeling.

 Just how are you feeling? Satisfied?  Happy?  Full with the aliveness from the day or perhaps the opposite, tired and beat and drained. Move back in your mind through your day feeling your energy levels- what brought it up, what took it down. Think about the other people you interacted with –who today lifted your spirits and caused you to smile? Who left you feeling like a soggy dishrag, finished? What about your activities during the day- what invigorated you- geared you up, left you excited? What made you wish that you could be anywhere else but here?

What did you do that made you glad- did you show kindness to someone, give someone a word of encouragement, hug a friend?

What did you do that made you wish you could wipe it out and have a do over? Maybe you were short with someone, maybe you were mean. Maybe you passed on a little gossip.

What caught your attention? You noticed something but maybe brushed it off- thought it was unusual or out of context or not very important. Somebody said something that made you think, caught you off guard, and left you wondering. Everything in your day carries meaning, a message for you. Try to remember to notice by staying in the present. Look for the significance. Trust the guideposts in your emotions and in those things that draw your attention.

The stars signal the ending of the day. Sift it through. Today is now over. Let it go.  Set your intention to make tomorrow better than today. Forgive yourself for the things you need to, love yourself for what you did well.

Look up at those stars glittering in eternity and know that today, no matter what happened, you being here made a difference. The ripples from your day eddy on throughout the universe.

Once upon a time Rumi lived in the Garden. He left us his wisdom captured in words that were insightful and beautiful,  cutting to the core of life and providing direction for those who come later.

Rumi said “There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about; but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life. It’s as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do. 

So human beings come to this world to do particular work. That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you don’t do it, it’s as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat. It’s a golden bowl being used to cook turnips, when one filing from the bowl could buy a hundred suitable pots. It’s a knife of the finest tempering nailed into a wall to hang things on. You say, “But look, I’m using the dagger. It’s not lying idle.” Do you hear how ludicrous that sounds? For a penny, an iron nail could be bought to serve the purpose. You say, “But I spend my energies on lofty enterprises. I study jurisprudence and philosophy and logic and astronomy and medicine and all the rest.” But consider why you do those things. They are all branches of yourself.” 

Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your lord. Give your life to the one who already owns your breath and your moments. If you don’t, you will be exactly like the man who takes a precious dagger and hammers it into his kitchen wall for a peg to hold his dipper gourd. You’ll be wasting valuable keenness and foolishly ignoring your dignity and your purpose”.  Ah the words of Rumi!

What is it you are doing and why are you doing it? Are you serving the purpose for which you were sent?

Memo from the Old Man’s Garden Loneliness

Someday you will feel lonely. Perhaps it is a day when a friend disappointed you because they couldn’t come with you,  a day when you walked in a crowd of people and felt lost and unknown, or perhaps it has been building bit by bit  to a crescendo. You have tried all you know to fend it off- got busier, spent more time doing things you really don’t want to do, drank more, ate more, played more games, slept more, worked more -anything that keeps the wold of loneliness away. You built a virtual bonfire to try and keep yourself safe. You have looked around at other people and wondered how they could do it, live in a world of lonely and seemingly not know about it. You don’t know they are fighting their own demons of loneliness with parties and activities, faking it too. Then one day, there it is facing you, snarling teeth- I‘ve come for you it says. Your heart clenches with fear; you have no more defences. The bonfires are out and there are only cold ashes left. Fear rises through your body turning your hands and feet to ice.

That day is a good day. Don’t turn to run. Look into the eyes of your fear and stare it down. Who is this loneliness that has come to call? What is it bringing? Pretend to participate in the Arctic Polar dip-don’t run away from the freezing waters – run towards your loneliness and jump in. Surprisingly you do not sink. Rest there for a while, held by the buoyancy, floating in a sea of possibility, realizing that possibly loneliness has a gift for you. Just like the drop of water in the ocean surrounded by all the other drops, you cannot be alone no matter how lonely you feel. You are supported by the whole, not the individual drops. Let the waves of loneliness ride through you like the waves beating on the shore, dissipating on the beach and then returning to their source spent.  Stay a while longer and you will feel warmth flooding through your body, healing all the icy spots.  Now, you know.  You are not alone, even if you felt you were in the loneliest place in the world. You can never be alone, even if you were a hermit in the farthest reaches of the world. It is impossible to be alone. There are millions of hearts beating just as your beats, you are one with them and everyone is connected by the Invisible One. The Invisible One has brought you  home to Yourself. In Yourself there is no loneliness, only love.

In  her book Page after Page, writer  Heather Sellers recommends taking a nap if life is getting to you, if you feel cranky and out of sorts or things are just not going your way. She says a mental health day is just the ticket to get you back on track.  How did we get so far off track in the first place? People push themselves to be more to do more to have more, to see more….. People invented the night shift so that they create more work time in a day and now work requires us to go into the wee hours long after the sun has set, trying to get ahead of our multitude of tasks—believing all the while that we can catch up. What are we catching up to? Where do we think we are going? If you fly over a lake in the summertime you will see all sorts of boaters driving their crafts against the wind racing to get to some point that only they are aware of, crisscrossing each other’s paths. From their point of view they probably believe they are going somewhere but from the sky view you can see that the boundaries of the lake are finite. They really aren’t going to get anywhere. If they do reach the edge, the only place is to turn around and go somewhere else.  Now look at the tree on the shoreline. There they stand – responsive to all that comes. They put out leaves in the spring; they drop them in the fall. They are not in a rush to get anywhere or seemingly to do anything but just stand there, yet the job they do for us in the world  is more important than any other. The world was created with day and night- periods of activity and periods of quiet–night being the time for rest, sleep and rejuvenation.  The world was created for our interaction with it and with each other.  We need to reestablish the natural rhythm that  came with our first breathe. We need to find out what it is that we are meant to be which for us will be just as easy as it is for the  trees. We won’t be caught in a world of busyness and bad moods, our life will flow and  every day will be a mental health day.

There is a big wind blowing. The wind drives the snow across the fields molding and sculpting the landscape to look like ocean waves. As the wind pursues the warm air it carries, it melts away the snow revealing pockets of dirt, left over garbage and patches of slippery ice.  The trees on the edges bend and sway with the power of the wind and the power we see raises anxiety. We don’t know what to expect. Will something be damaged? Will something blow away?  We feel it in our insides. Fear rustles in our guts.  Sometimes the wind arouses us only to look and to notice, sometimes it leaves us with major clean up and disaster to overcome. Yet, no matter how fiercely the wind may rage, it too passes and it leaves us with the need to change.

At times, we may experience a spirit wind within us.   We are tossed up and down like a wee boat in a hurricane. Unexpectedly, the spirit wind blows through our soul requiring us to change, not asking but powerfully forcing us to. The spirit wind blows away our pretenses. It reveals what lies underneath and asks us to look at our dark and dirty places. It unclothes hidden desires and unknown beliefs; the ones we try so hard to ignore and pretend do not exist. We are melted and exposed. The spirit wind lays our heart and soul bare to the world.  It calls us to examine our motives; it asks us to look at our shadow side. Sometimes it is gentle and arouses us to look and notice, to wake up and pay attention, but sometimes it blasts away what we no longer need with the force of the tornado, clearing the way. 

The winds always carry a message. Life is constantly evolving. You cannot remain stagnant where you are. You are meant to grow.  You are called to grow.  You must grow. When you feel the spirit wind, you are  ready, ready for new beginning. Turn your face to the wind.