I welcome the silence & sometimes contemplation when I come to this site, when I am at church, walking in nature and quiet early mornings and late evenings It is that time of year again (golfing season) when we can hear the golf carts and people golfing next door. My son cleared a lot of down trees out back so now we are enjoying walks down an old railway path in the woods where it is nice and quiet.
I love silence. I have to remind myself to welcome music, or an audio book or conversation with others. However, this weekend I am on a little visit with family and friends with little to no silence. I am exhausted – just from the constance conversation. I love them all. But I need my silence,
It seems
that I’ve always had time for silence and contemplation . . .
I often played alone as a child,
enjoyed my solitude,
and never wished for more,
but during those years after my first son died,
I was thrust into action . . .
partly through financial need
and partly to escape that silence of an empty crib
Now
I have an abundant amount of time
in which I can find silence
as much as is possible,
with the occasional car going by,
and of course,
the birds
and their active conversations.
The cars
used to get in the way of my contemplative practice,
but I’ve come to accept them
as part of the symphony of life,
and don’t think of them unkindly anymore.
I sit silent
and listen to my breath,
which guides me to the place I need to be,
and then I just melt into that ‘beingness’.
There is always some anxiety at first
as I settle in,
but as the rhythm rocks me,
I am neither here,
nor there,
nor anywhere
except in that quiet connection with the Universe,
which tells me
that all is well;
all is as it should be.
I put it in a little knapsack in my heart
and carry it around with me all day,
no matter where I go
or what I engage in.
Welcoming silence and meditation daily early mornings. Planning for evening as well, but often enough, I am in my way. Thank you for this question. It made me aware that there is no need to worry so much any more, that faith and trust returned to some degree already, which I needed to possibly dive again into the depths of stillness. Due to this question, and also as life unfolds right now, things turn out to be more grounded again, so I feel anchoring meditation in a proper way is now again possible. So this is what I will do mornings and hopefully, often evenings as well. May contemplation and meditation be the door to deeper stillness in all.
I am lucky. My life is pretty simple. Not too many demands on my attention. I mean, I work a lot, but I also have mornings or when I’m driving (which I do a lot of) and evenings when I can have some time to meditate, or read, or listen to something interesting.
The only thing that really gets in the way is me.
Mostly because I’m tired and just want to be passive and scroll facbook. I’ve replaced TV with this.
It’s definitely addictive and a giant waste of time.
I’m working on it. 🫤
My mornings aren’t 100% silent, but they give me time for contemplation as I write in my journal, read poetry, visit this site.
I find quiet more easily than true silence. Walking in the forest park near my home gives me quiet, with the sound of my feet on the paths, birds twittering, water trickling in a couple of places. My home can be quiet, but not silent unless the power goes out and every last appliance stops its background hum. Finding a quiet neighborhood was one of the non-negotiables when we bought this house. We’re in a town so we still have people sounds, a bit of traffic farther off, but not the constant clamor of a big city.
I woke in the night to the sound of rain that continued into the morning. It has stopped now, bringing a quieter wetness to the world as the eaves and leaves continue to drip.
I remember as a child waking up to the hush that fell over the earth because it had snowed. That wonderful blanket of white brought quiet–until we went outside to build snow people and make snow angels, that is.
I’ll try to find pockets of quiet or silence in my day today. I’ll be biking to an exercise class and later donating blood. Neither of those is a quiet space, but the riding gives me a space away from the mechanical sounds of my home, with only the sounds of birds, my pedals turning, and the swish of tires on wet pavement. (Possibly some huffing and puffing, too….)
I let my reaction to this crazy world get in the way too often.
I share some quotes and a story about the Artimis II crew’s reaction to their trip to the moon. Their response to their experience in spaceis definitely something to contemplate!
“Ultimately, work on self is inseparable from work in the world.
Each mirrors the other; each is a vehicle for the other.
When we change ourselves, our values and actions change as well.”
Charles Eisenstein
“Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. ”
Oscar Romero
NASA chief asked the Artemis II crew to describe their mission in one word. Four astronauts. Four answers. All of them, somehow, said the same thing: Humility.
Christina Koch, who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman, didn’t say “historic.” She said humility. She named Katherine Johnson. Dorothy Vaughan. The workers who put their hands on every valve of the spacecraft. “We definitely didn’t pass the record up here alone.”
Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to reach lunar orbit, said: “Right away, you are humbled. The fact that four of us get to be out here just brings you to your knees.”
Victor Glover, looking back at Earth from 252,000 miles away, said: “You look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us.”
These are not people who have nothing to be proud of. These are people who chose humility because of what they know, not in spite of it.
In educational psychology, we talk a lot about expertise. About knowledge. About competence.
But the most effective teachers, coaches, and learners share this one thing: they never stopped being students first.
Humility isn’t the absence of confidence. It’s knowing that what you carry was built by others. That the person in front of you, your student, your colleague, your child, deserves your clearest, most accessible self. Not your credentials. Not your jargon. YOU
What would it look like if we brought a little more humility [into our quiet time]?
I welcome silence at the start of the day in the early morning and then again in the evening before bed. Beginning each day answering the Daily Question on this website is grounding and a positive start to the day. I contemplate how my day went when it’s time to go to bed and lay in the silence of my room. (except for the purr of my kitty)
My life is filled with quiet and silence. Now the contemplation part is missing. I enjoy and welcome my morning routine but then I do fill it up with “to do” and shoulds
I welcome silence occasionally in the morning when meditating from the Soothing Pod App. Also, I go to Vail Place every Wednesday at Uptown in Minneapolis for people with mental health struggles to socialize and gather. I go in the morning to do meditation for 20 minutes led by a man name Frank. Nothing gets in the way when I make room for silence.
I feel as though I am comfortable with silence, but recently, I have been so occupied that whenever I am not doing anything, I am quick to find something to keep me busy. I am always contemplating my life in my head, but feel like I am also getting in the way of it if that makes sense. I have so many thoughts and ideas of what I want to do but I have anxious thoughts that prevent me to actually take the plunge and do them.
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and it’s so nice to see familiar folks still on this platform. Wishing y’all a relaxing weekend. 🧡🙏🏽
What has helped me with that damn monkey in my mind is to invite him into my lap instead of trying to shoot him out of the trees. Welcome back Jenifer.
I welcome it each morning as I sit in silence. I welcome it as I start a yoga practice, whether teaching or being a student – although I am always a student even while teaching 🙂
Silence outside of my mind is not always available, depending on where I am. I live on the outskirts of a big city, so there is always some urban movement. But contemplation… it is always available and I am always contemplating something. It is our nature as humans to be curious, and it is my nature to wonder what my dog is thinking when she’s staring at me with her big amber eyes. Or what the birds are saying to each other when they’re singing in the trees. What the deer is thinking when I’m on a path and see it out in the trees. I could go on and on.
I think we’re finally done with cold weather around here, which is fine by me. Grateful for warm spring weather. Hope you all have a great day ☀️
The lifestyle I enjoy, here in rural San Luis Valley, Colorado, a mile east of the foothills of the San Juan mountain range, east of the great divide, along the Alamosa River, is full of silence from humankind. The silence is filled with the sound of snowmelt seeking its level, right now. Agua es Vida. I spend most days and nights here on our small forage farm pondering, contemplation some would say, life. When things get in the way, bring it back to the breath and give my senses free rein. I am grateful how my so called life has evolved. Peace, Love & Light
I welcome Truth- silencing my mind world which is false and an illusion each day my using the method to let go.
Like today’s quote letting go and “seeing “ my world and my convictions are all false is to completely surrender and this is repenting. I notice now how deeply rooted the thoughts use to be. I used to be lost in thinking and submerged in my thoughts.
There are a bunch of fish swimming around in a fish bowl and one of them says to other fish-so how’s the water today ? The other fish replies- What water? Where ?
Being submerged and invested deeply into whatever going on in my mind is in a sense being completely lost.
Coming out of the deep cave of the mind world is freedom and it’s where Life/Truth is – it’s here right now inside of me only I’m the fish 🎣 who is lost believing all my judgement and decrements basically so invested in MY conviction that I don’t or can’t hear Truth.
Thank you for this question. Lovely wake up call to keep cleansing my mind world until only silence remains – thoughts are not Truth.
Happy weekend friends! 🌱💯💓
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I welcome the silence & sometimes contemplation when I come to this site, when I am at church, walking in nature and quiet early mornings and late evenings It is that time of year again (golfing season) when we can hear the golf carts and people golfing next door. My son cleared a lot of down trees out back so now we are enjoying walks down an old railway path in the woods where it is nice and quiet.
I love silence. I have to remind myself to welcome music, or an audio book or conversation with others. However, this weekend I am on a little visit with family and friends with little to no silence. I am exhausted – just from the constance conversation. I love them all. But I need my silence,
It seems
that I’ve always had time for silence and contemplation . . .
I often played alone as a child,
enjoyed my solitude,
and never wished for more,
but during those years after my first son died,
I was thrust into action . . .
partly through financial need
and partly to escape that silence of an empty crib
Now
I have an abundant amount of time
in which I can find silence
as much as is possible,
with the occasional car going by,
and of course,
the birds
and their active conversations.
The cars
used to get in the way of my contemplative practice,
but I’ve come to accept them
as part of the symphony of life,
and don’t think of them unkindly anymore.
I sit silent
and listen to my breath,
which guides me to the place I need to be,
and then I just melt into that ‘beingness’.
There is always some anxiety at first
as I settle in,
but as the rhythm rocks me,
I am neither here,
nor there,
nor anywhere
except in that quiet connection with the Universe,
which tells me
that all is well;
all is as it should be.
I put it in a little knapsack in my heart
and carry it around with me all day,
no matter where I go
or what I engage in.
I need to do this every day,
lest I forget. ♥
Practice.
. . . is key. ♥
Welcoming silence and meditation daily early mornings. Planning for evening as well, but often enough, I am in my way. Thank you for this question. It made me aware that there is no need to worry so much any more, that faith and trust returned to some degree already, which I needed to possibly dive again into the depths of stillness. Due to this question, and also as life unfolds right now, things turn out to be more grounded again, so I feel anchoring meditation in a proper way is now again possible. So this is what I will do mornings and hopefully, often evenings as well. May contemplation and meditation be the door to deeper stillness in all.
Your reflection,
dear Ose,
reads like a poem . . .
when I have lived alone
I loved those quiet early mornings,
when only the birds were up.,
You make me think of that time now. ♥
I am lucky. My life is pretty simple. Not too many demands on my attention. I mean, I work a lot, but I also have mornings or when I’m driving (which I do a lot of) and evenings when I can have some time to meditate, or read, or listen to something interesting.
The only thing that really gets in the way is me.
Mostly because I’m tired and just want to be passive and scroll facbook. I’ve replaced TV with this.
It’s definitely addictive and a giant waste of time.
I’m working on it. 🫤
We all have things to work on,
dear Charlie . . .
don’t feel like the Lone Ranger. ♥
My mornings aren’t 100% silent, but they give me time for contemplation as I write in my journal, read poetry, visit this site.
I find quiet more easily than true silence. Walking in the forest park near my home gives me quiet, with the sound of my feet on the paths, birds twittering, water trickling in a couple of places. My home can be quiet, but not silent unless the power goes out and every last appliance stops its background hum. Finding a quiet neighborhood was one of the non-negotiables when we bought this house. We’re in a town so we still have people sounds, a bit of traffic farther off, but not the constant clamor of a big city.
I woke in the night to the sound of rain that continued into the morning. It has stopped now, bringing a quieter wetness to the world as the eaves and leaves continue to drip.
I remember as a child waking up to the hush that fell over the earth because it had snowed. That wonderful blanket of white brought quiet–until we went outside to build snow people and make snow angels, that is.
I’ll try to find pockets of quiet or silence in my day today. I’ll be biking to an exercise class and later donating blood. Neither of those is a quiet space, but the riding gives me a space away from the mechanical sounds of my home, with only the sounds of birds, my pedals turning, and the swish of tires on wet pavement. (Possibly some huffing and puffing, too….)
Thank you for making time out of your day to donate Barb:)
I let my reaction to this crazy world get in the way too often.
I share some quotes and a story about the Artimis II crew’s reaction to their trip to the moon. Their response to their experience in spaceis definitely something to contemplate!
“Ultimately, work on self is inseparable from work in the world.
Each mirrors the other; each is a vehicle for the other.
When we change ourselves, our values and actions change as well.”
Charles Eisenstein
“Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. ”
Oscar Romero
NASA chief asked the Artemis II crew to describe their mission in one word. Four astronauts. Four answers. All of them, somehow, said the same thing: Humility.
Christina Koch, who holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman, didn’t say “historic.” She said humility. She named Katherine Johnson. Dorothy Vaughan. The workers who put their hands on every valve of the spacecraft. “We definitely didn’t pass the record up here alone.”
Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian to reach lunar orbit, said: “Right away, you are humbled. The fact that four of us get to be out here just brings you to your knees.”
Victor Glover, looking back at Earth from 252,000 miles away, said: “You look like one thing. Homo sapiens is all of us.”
These are not people who have nothing to be proud of. These are people who chose humility because of what they know, not in spite of it.
In educational psychology, we talk a lot about expertise. About knowledge. About competence.
But the most effective teachers, coaches, and learners share this one thing: they never stopped being students first.
Humility isn’t the absence of confidence. It’s knowing that what you carry was built by others. That the person in front of you, your student, your colleague, your child, deserves your clearest, most accessible self. Not your credentials. Not your jargon. YOU
What would it look like if we brought a little more humility [into our quiet time]?
I am in complete awe of their experience. Love all the pictures and conversations we were able to listen to.
It would indeed
be very quiet,
dear Carol Ann . . . ♥
I welcome silence at the start of the day in the early morning and then again in the evening before bed. Beginning each day answering the Daily Question on this website is grounding and a positive start to the day. I contemplate how my day went when it’s time to go to bed and lay in the silence of my room. (except for the purr of my kitty)
Have a good weekend everyone.
https://nationaltoday.com/national-pet-day/
https://nationaltoday.com/today/
some good ones… haven’t had poutine in ages
Mmm… love me some poutine! There is a place in Charleston that had the absolute best poutine. Haven’t found any as good around here… yet!
I love warm cheese curds,
dear Michele,
but never tried them with crispy fries.
My mouth is watering. 🙂
Michele, those are the best times for that.
My life is filled with quiet and silence. Now the contemplation part is missing. I enjoy and welcome my morning routine but then I do fill it up with “to do” and shoulds
I too,
have much space filled with quiet and silence,
dear Drea . . .
I wonder how that will change
when my husband fully retires next year. ♥
ps. Don’t worry too much about the ‘shoulds’.
I hear you, YRAM. Be patient with yourself.
I welcome silence occasionally in the morning when meditating from the Soothing Pod App. Also, I go to Vail Place every Wednesday at Uptown in Minneapolis for people with mental health struggles to socialize and gather. I go in the morning to do meditation for 20 minutes led by a man name Frank. Nothing gets in the way when I make room for silence.
I feel as though I am comfortable with silence, but recently, I have been so occupied that whenever I am not doing anything, I am quick to find something to keep me busy. I am always contemplating my life in my head, but feel like I am also getting in the way of it if that makes sense. I have so many thoughts and ideas of what I want to do but I have anxious thoughts that prevent me to actually take the plunge and do them.
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and it’s so nice to see familiar folks still on this platform. Wishing y’all a relaxing weekend. 🧡🙏🏽
What has helped me with that damn monkey in my mind is to invite him into my lap instead of trying to shoot him out of the trees. Welcome back Jenifer.
Welcome back, dear Jenifer!
Monkey mind,
as Joseph calls it?
I have that too sometimes,
dear Jenifer . . .
all I can say,
which is what I say t myself
is
‘be patient.’ ♥
and ps. Welcome back.
Seeing you here, Jenifer, brought a smile to my face. Welcome back.
Welcome back Jenifer 🙂
I thought I missed you. I can relate to your “head plans” and then not following up.
I welcome it each morning as I sit in silence. I welcome it as I start a yoga practice, whether teaching or being a student – although I am always a student even while teaching 🙂
Silence outside of my mind is not always available, depending on where I am. I live on the outskirts of a big city, so there is always some urban movement. But contemplation… it is always available and I am always contemplating something. It is our nature as humans to be curious, and it is my nature to wonder what my dog is thinking when she’s staring at me with her big amber eyes. Or what the birds are saying to each other when they’re singing in the trees. What the deer is thinking when I’m on a path and see it out in the trees. I could go on and on.
I think we’re finally done with cold weather around here, which is fine by me. Grateful for warm spring weather. Hope you all have a great day ☀️
The lifestyle I enjoy, here in rural San Luis Valley, Colorado, a mile east of the foothills of the San Juan mountain range, east of the great divide, along the Alamosa River, is full of silence from humankind. The silence is filled with the sound of snowmelt seeking its level, right now. Agua es Vida. I spend most days and nights here on our small forage farm pondering, contemplation some would say, life. When things get in the way, bring it back to the breath and give my senses free rein. I am grateful how my so called life has evolved. Peace, Love & Light
I welcome Truth- silencing my mind world which is false and an illusion each day my using the method to let go.
Like today’s quote letting go and “seeing “ my world and my convictions are all false is to completely surrender and this is repenting. I notice now how deeply rooted the thoughts use to be. I used to be lost in thinking and submerged in my thoughts.
There are a bunch of fish swimming around in a fish bowl and one of them says to other fish-so how’s the water today ? The other fish replies- What water? Where ?
Being submerged and invested deeply into whatever going on in my mind is in a sense being completely lost.
Coming out of the deep cave of the mind world is freedom and it’s where Life/Truth is – it’s here right now inside of me only I’m the fish 🎣 who is lost believing all my judgement and decrements basically so invested in MY conviction that I don’t or can’t hear Truth.
Thank you for this question. Lovely wake up call to keep cleansing my mind world until only silence remains – thoughts are not Truth.
Happy weekend friends! 🌱💯💓
Antoinette, Big Hug coming your way!
And a delightful Saturday and Sunday to you, friend Antionette.