Evening wetland at Dover, Idaho

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Originally uploaded by bonny lass

A perfect moment, and well suited to this blog's name.

Of all the myriad endeavors available to us, finding stillness may be the most rewarding. A moment enjoyed in stillness frees the mind from its endless searching, its continuous thinking and creating and judging and planning and opinionating and lurching forward and...you get the idea. You have a mind, too, and whether you realize it or not, it likely gets the better of you sometimes.

The magic of stillness is that it allows us a window in which we can experience ourselves in a greater context. By simply being, pausing, we are able to extend our feeling perception to include far more than we are accustomed to letting in. In that momentary vacuum, we can set aside the collecton of thoughts and attitudes that we generally identify with as who we are, and, if we are willing, realize that we are much more.

In stillness, we become aware of what's around us. The fragrance of summer grasses; the quiet lapping of water at lake's edge; a distinctive bird call somewhere nearby. The longer we are still, the more we notice. The shapes of the stones on the beach, their colors, the sound they make under a footstep. The ripple on the water that turns out to be a beaver's wake. The textures and variations of the clouds, the particular color of blue in the sky, and how it changes like a watercolor a few moments later.

And if you wait long enough in that stillness, you begin to notice things on the inside, too. You'll suddenly think of the argument you had earlier in the day, and see it in a new perspective--quite possibly seeing the other person's point of view, now that the heat of emotion has passed. You'll notice the kinds of things you think about--the thoughts you allow to inhabit your mind. You'll begin to notice what expectations you have, how much time you spend worrying, and how you really feel about yourself. You'll be able to let things go that you've been carrying around without realizing it, and feel more peaceful as a result. This is the place that matters, the place where beauty and truth merge, where honesty, upliftment, and change happen. Many people are afraid to go there.

My suggestion: do it anyway. Somehow, sooner or later, you'll find that making this little journey into stillness, into really discovering who you are and how you work, may be the most important thing you've ever done.

Namaste