From We Are Meant to Thrive Tumblr
A – Z Challenge – Day 17
“Be Silent yourself, that will induce Silence in others. Do not fall into the habit of shouting, talking long and loud. Reduce contacts to the minimum. Carry with you an atmosphere of quiet contemplation, wherever you happen to be. The less you talk, the more will become your mental power. With the increase in your mental capacity, there will be increase in your power of discrimination too. Consequently, you will give up individual discrimination. Because of this, you will begin to consider the good of the world at large rather than your own individual welfare. You must cultivate such broad feelings from this young age itself.” ~ Sri Sathya Sai Baba
The Quiet Rooms
It is no secret that this world overvalues busyness, noise, and the loudest voices in the room. It equates activity with productivity – although the two are not mutually exclusive. You can sit in meditation or contemplation and get just as much ‘done’ as you might with a wild burst of energy that hits the walls of the room like paint splatter.
In a time when everywhere you look phones are ringing and people are chattering and voices are rising and tires are screeching, the ability to sit in the quiet rooms of dawn and just watch the sky open to a new day, is a gift. It is something I treasure: starting the day listening to the bird-heavy trees, listening to the tiny lizards running up the side of the house, listening to the faint hooting of a pair of owls who nest nearby.
Before traffic starts to hum, before cars are warmed up and lunches are packed and dogs are walked, there is a quiet blue hour. It happens every single day, just before sunrise.
The Moon’s Hanging on a Hook in the Sky
My mom always gets up ‘in the middle of the night’ to work in the quiet, drink several pots of Earl Grey tea, and enjoy whatever book she’s currently reading. Sometimes she sews or cleans, but the point is, it is her most productive time of day. I find, the older I get, the more these hours before the world wakes up and has coffee, become my power hours, as well. I love to write when the moon’s still up and I can hear my cats softly purring on the chairs nearby.
We listen too much to the telephone and we listen too little to nature. The wind is one of my sounds. A lonely sound, perhaps, but soothing. Everybody should have his personal sounds to listen for—sounds that will make him exhilarated and alive, or quiet and calm… As a matter of fact, one of the greatest sounds of them all—and to me it is a sound—is utter, complete silence. ~ André Kostelanetz
Waking, Perchance to Dream
I love being awake while others sleep. It is as though I am living in a world within a world — one that most folks miss out on — too busy walking briskly within the designated lines and structures of modern society. I like being the first to open the page of a new day. I like staring into its crisp white blankness and wondering what will unfold.
Silence is exhilarating at first – as noise is – but there is a sweetness to silence outlasting exhilaration, akin to the sweetness of listening and the velvet of sleep. ~ Edward Hoagland
Today, I savor this quiet hour – flavored with coffee and a sense of wonder. I stand in the empty rooms of this particular and unique and only day ahead, and I listen for the heartbeat of what’s to come. I listen for the drums of change and the hoof beats of the horses – metaphorical or otherwise – that will carry me through the hours ahead.
I taste the silence, swim in this river of wordlessness, listen to the hum of the house where I live.
I love this stillness. I love it with my whole being.
© 2014 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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