In The World
in the strange early morning half light we sit
in the cloudiness of our questioning we sit
in our madness and our clarity we sit
in the midst of too much to do we sit
in the warm arms of our shared sorrow we sit
in community and in loneliness we sit
in sweet exhaustion we sit
in the blazing energy of being alive we sit
here with the singing crickets
here with each electric birdsong
here with the rippling of breezes and the dry grasses
here with the cobwebs and the clouds
and the dusty road upon us
us in the sound and the sound in us
us in the world and the world in us
- by Brigid Lowry
Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Quiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.
by Mary Oliver
I will be your sun
You carry a whole world with you.
A planet rests upon your shoulders.
You may not see it, but I do.
There is a Universe Within that you carry wherever you go.
Ecosystems of passion and romance. Warring nations of worry and fear.
A billion living ideas, stories and experiences that make up a whole history named You.
Wherever you go, I promise to be your sun.
It’s not that your life revolves around me.
Think of it like this:
Whenever you come to me,
I will do my best to be quiet and still
and shine nothing but kindness and light upon you.
- Dave Ursillo
Like Water
In the stillness,
be like water,
soft, yet strong,
yielding, yet unshakeable.
Let the heat rise
but let your breath
be the stream that cools,
the moonlit tide that soothes
Release into gravity,
into the earth that cradles you,
and remember:
you do not have to strive to soften.
The calm you seek
Is already within –
you only need to pause, listen, and let it rise
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN...?
What would happen
if you removed the word ‘anxious’
and just paid attention
to these flickering sensations in the belly?
What would happen
if you took away the concept ‘lonely’
and simply became fascinated
with this heavy feeling in the heart area?
What would happen
if you deleted the image ‘sick’
or ‘broken’ or ‘bad’
and just got curious about
the tightness in the throat
the pressure in the head
the ache in the shoulders?
What would happen
if you stopped looking for solutions
and checked to see
if there was actually a problem here?
Come out of the exhausting storyline, friend.
It’s not true. It was never true.
Commit sacred awareness to a single living moment.
Come closer to yourself, Now.
Bring warmth to the tender places inside.
Infuse sensation with the light of attention.
It’s never as bad as you think.
– Jeff Foster