Since I last posted the world has seemingly gone quite mad. Just last week we woke to the astonishing and surreal news that Donald Trump, billionaire reality TV star, was now the president-elect of the United States. What seemed to be impossible has become real. According to many pundits and commentators, the academics and journalists, it is part of a rising tide of nationalism and populist politics born out of inequality, uncertainty and loss. There will be thousands upon thousands of words written about this time in history but for all of us living through it it asks for a response. Riot and revolution are one response. Activism and the funnelling of energy are another. Numb staring at the unfolding news counts as a response as well. Perhaps a valid response is simply to stop and wait and see, at least for a time. Perhaps a valid response is to unknow, a least for a time. I don’t know. ______________________________ Out the back of our place is a patch of clover. I left it there when I whipper snipped the overgrown weeds. It now stands as a little forest of weedy flowers that is full of life. As the sunlight bathes it and the breeze caresses it it moves with tiny creatures - butterflies, bees, flies, dragonflies, tiny flying mites. On the surface the little forest seems like it is out of place but as I sink into its world it instead becomes the most real and important thing in life. What stands out is how much is going on in this tiny patch of overgrown greenery. There is nothing special about it, nothing spectacularly beautiful, nothing that stands out as an eye-catching feature. What does stand out is how the whole thing moves with the movement of life. Verdant, vitae,vital. ________________________________ I still don’t know. What I do know is the power and courage of the human spirit to strive for the better path, the whole path. In the midst of chaos, pain, disillusionment and suffering it is extraordinary how the human being puts one foot in front of the other carving out a path in the face of fear and overwhelming odds. Refugees I have work with have taught me this most powerfully as have dear friends who have struggled with personal difficulties of enormous magnitude. _______________________________ Is silence a response? Not the silence that seems to give permission to all manner of wrong but the silence that holds what is unfolding. As the weedy forest gives rise to life and energy and movement so the silence gives rise to the next right action, the next movement of the Spirit. ____________________________________ At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world: Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening ... you wait, you give your life's length to listening. From “Teaching a Stone to Talk” by Annie Dillard.
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Rebecca Newland:
Exploring balance, silence and contemplative living Archives
November 2016
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