Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: silence (page 1 of 1)

Corona Notes: Sitting, Listening

Coronavirus has forced people indoors, bringing our lives as we knew it to a grinding halt. However, all that action and busy-ness hasn’t gone anywhere; it has merely shifted location… all of it has moved online.

I am positive that you can find at least one activity to participate in, every waking hour of the day. You can yoga along with fellow yogis, meditate at least 2x/day, chant Om Namah Shivaaya in groups, listen to inspiring sermons, et al. Since the online world has no restriction on movement, we can be here, there, everywhere, all at once.

It is difficult being with silence and looming questions, so we craft one activity after another, all positive and uplifting, “raising the spirit,” so we can avoid the burden of simply being with what is.

(Yoga is awesome! Meditation is lovely. So is art, gardening, singing and dancing… also quietly sitting, listening.)

Talk is Easy

“Don’t you feel that there is such a lot of chatter going on all the time?”
“Like you are surrounded by a bunch of chatty folks all the time?”
“No, it isn’t just that.”

Talk is easy, quick and cheap
You can talk through the day until the sun sets, and then all night long.
Start the chatter and careless banter as day breaks,
Then there is TV and talk radio, interviews and people holding forth endless opinions,
And the grocery store and yoga studio, salon and gym.

It is on Facebook and Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr,
We all have something to say, our voices count, our opinions matter.

Even when the voices have died down, the talk continues.

Unceasing, relentless, changing and evolving, yes.

“Let me speak, I have been silent so long
I want to share too, I have been quiet for years,
I would like for someone to hear me too.”

I wish it was quieter, I really do.

The World that Beckons

There’s a world that beckons inward,
A space of quiet, non-threatening, plain and clean

I started going there as a child, I think?
I felt non-judged, felt like myself
(Whatever “myself” meant at that point in space and time)

I thought everyone had this kinda place
Surely, everyone needed it?

It took me a while before I got it:
That space was my own, my gift, a place I crafted for myself, maybe before I was even born
For refuge, for respite, a place to sleep and dream and let the tears flow

I still go there
every day
It is my own

And I like its neutrality

As a child, I felt it welcoming
Now I appreciate neutrality even more

Walls are pale grey-blue
Air flows in and out
There are windows, but none really
I feel the sun, the light and warmth

I hear the water

Is it a beach? A silent forest? Atop a mountain?

Are those clouds floating by, misting over?

Birdsong, chai, sounds of silence.

Silence and Talk

Over the last couple of years, I have been tending towards more and more silence. It does throw me off a bit that I am in the business of communication and don't desire to speak much any more. As I work with multiple Twitter/Facebook accounts for clients, my own voice seems to have fallen silent. My pages and feeds have begun to look and feel blank. Is this good? It may be a phase.