Courting Silence

We’ve been harvesting peaches and early pears this week, waiting for tomatoes and peppers to ripen in this long, slow summer of extremes.  The waiting offers a sense of gestation. begging the question, “How can we recognize when is the time ripe?” 

With tomatoes it’s pretty easy to recognize ripeness.  But during important decisions or conversations it can be harder.  So we wait and learn to listen with our hearts, asking “When is the time ripe?’

Waiting for the ‘Time to be Ripe’, is a skill we work towards as we step into our personal power; seeking to be all we truly can be.  Allowing life to unfold within us and around us, taking the time to notice its fullness is a skill not supported in our society.  It’s a skill we can court as a lover courts a shy beloved.

As with any courtship we can take it slowly or we can try to sweep our beloved off of her proverbial feet.  But the courtships that last into deep and fulfilling relationships tend to choose the former.  And, of course, you will find your own way into and through Silence.

Courting Silence.

Try taking just a few moments in your day to stop, to breathe. To notice what it feels like to Stop and to Breathe.  And then move on. See if you like doing this.  Notice how long it takes you to remember that you can do this.  See if you are drawn to trying it again.  Decide if you want to make this a personal practice.

After several days of remembering to stop and breathe and notice how you feel, consider taking another step.

This second step is to notice when Silence already shows up in your life.  Is it when you wake up in the night and the children are actually sleeping?  Is it when you walk through the park between here and there?  Is it on the edge of sleep or of waking?

Notice what happens in that nano-second between Silence and your racing thoughts.  Watch them try to fill in the gap created by Silence.  And, if you can, breathe into that gap.  Expand it. Notice how you feel before the thoughts and feelings fill it up.

Notice how slippery that Silence is; how it gives you a side long glance before melting before the crowd of thoughts, asking, “will you follow me?”

Noticing Silence, no matter how small, we can begin to consider the question, “Does this Silence serve me?”

Ask if you are attracted to the depth that only Silence offers. 

If your answer is yes, welcome to a whole new adventure in becoming whole!

In the words of Ajahn Chah, of the forest monastery in Thailand

Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surrounding, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will see clearly the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. Problems will arise, but you will see through them immediately.

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