The blue jays call. The squirrels chitter. Otherwise, nothing and no one stirs.
My daughter is behind a door with a handmade sign reading “In Class.” My husband is in the office staring at a screen. I am in the living room pecking on this keyboard, with only my thoughts to disrupt.
We can hardly keep from napping in the afternoon, retiring without turning on the TV. The hush that has pervaded this place seems other-worldly. But it isn’t another world. It is the sound of a world that always sounds this way. So peaceful, so natural; so ordered, so right. What a shock to realize that human beings make all the noise, cause all the crush, summon the haste and fury.
To be instantly free from ourselves, ah, that is the gift of letting go.
This morning walking by the kitchen window I saw the garden shimmering in its everyday light and I recalled the words of a hymn we all know, a song that praises the silence before waking, the stillness before breaking, the dark that beckons the saving grace of a new day.
All is calm, all is bright.
May we each remember a peace long forgotten, a noble way of being with all beings, beginning in our own backyards.
Thank you Karen. All your posts resonate, but this one more than most.
Comment by Tom — March 23, 2020 @ 4:53 pm
How kind, Tom. But all I do is listen.
Comment by Karen Maezen Miller — March 23, 2020 @ 8:25 pm
I am so relieved to come here each day you post, to see what you see and feel what you feel. Blessings and gratitude.
Comment by ELIZABETH A AQUINO — March 23, 2020 @ 10:18 pm
When I was in college I loved to do part of my designwork between midnight and 2 am. Somehow the atmosphere felt much more peaceful at that moment of the day as if I could sense peoples frantic, stressed thoughts buzzing around me during the day. It was as if I could think more clearly and more peacefully in the night. Being locked into our house with my children (my husband is out doing “essential work” at the moment) feels just like that but during the day rather than at night.
I do try to keep in mind that this peace is not the case for everyone at this moment.
Comment by Simone — March 24, 2020 @ 2:12 am
I come here for peace and strength and I find it here. Thank you.
Comment by Allison Murray — March 24, 2020 @ 2:22 am