Tag: stillness

The Whispers Between the Raindrops

We’ve had a week of torrential rains since the new moon in Pisces. The Earth is soaked and I’ve been losing myself in the magic of early morning nature walks when the rain is still soft and gentle. Dreamy mists, cool breezes and the wetness on my skin, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I’ve found myself pulled into a place of ‘leaning in’ and deep listening to the whispers between the raindrops.

I will always love the way that raindrops – free, full and falling little universes of their own – make my world stop. How they call me out of mazes in I’ve built in my mind and invite me stand in stillness and flow with grace all at once. Traces of yesterday are washed away in an instant and all that remains is this breath, this moment in time on a great journey to unknown places.

raindrops

Grasses and trees wear raindrops with such pride, glistening boldly with the lustre of such lush wet adornment. I’ve always wondered if they experience what I do…do they feel the pull of sacredness?

And do you? Do you hear the quiet whispers between the raindrops, the one that invites you down the path to presence?   

rain berries

Dreamland and Drifting in Between

I dreamt of daffodil bulbs sprouting, their young leaves rising from the earth like graceful green ghosts…and then that I was standing in a valley taking photos of mist rolling over the green hills…and still I dreamt of a woman with sea foam white hair teaching me how to listen to the whispering trees in the forest.

When I woke up, my mind still drifting in between dreamland and reality, I remember thinking…

…there are angels in nature walking amongst the trees and whispering the secret language of sacred things.

And also that…

…mosses are a whole unknown world, in fact, a whole Universe of wisdom. They say that ‘rolling stones don’t gather moss.’ So to drink in great worlds of wisdom we must be still just like ancient rocks and boulders who rest in peaceful presence for eons and then allow the insights that rise from the Universe and from the quiet stirring within us to grow like moss on the moist edges of our consciousness.

Meanwhile, the autumn sun was rising somewhere behind the sea of grey clouds without me there to see it, and the garden was waking up wet from the early morning drizzle. It’s been a wetter autumn than usual and when I saw the rain-soaked oxalis leaves cropping up between the herbs it made me think of faeries and stories I should be writing for my children, if they ever come.

A morning like this can only lead to more enchantment unfolding as the day grows old. For that I am grateful.

image

Only Peace…

All my life what I’ve craved most is peace.

Peace away from the violent conflict of my home life while growing up. Peace away from the bullies who tormented me at school. Peace away from toxic work environments and bosses that I seemed to keep attracting. The peace to breathe. The quietude to hear my own thoughts and to listen to the soft wild whispers of my heart.

It’s little wonder that was so prone to depression in my teens and early twenties. Except for when I was fortunate enough to escape to the wild comfort of Nature, peace seemed hard to come by. I didn’t know how to find it back then. It seemed rare, and fleeting and difficult to find for so long.

Although I still do fall into dark and melancholic depths when my thoughts are locked in negativity and the past, I’ve noticed something in recent months. Peace is finding its way to me more and more. I had to just take a moment to be fully aware of this fact. To notice it and to appreciate it….Peace is finding me in so many beautiful ways. Not just when I am out in Nature, but in simple moments throughout my days. And it doesn’t come when I’m searching, striving and struggling to hold on to it.

If “hope is a thing with feathers” as Emily Dickinson said, then peace is a thing that wraps its soft and delicate presence around me when I release the trying, the needing and the wanting it so much.

There is no searching in sitting by the window to watch the glistening beads of rain drip from the tree leaves. Only peace.

There is no striving when I give myself the space to read poetry or write the words embedded in my soul. Only peace.

There is no trying while brushing my hands through the yarrow, lemon verbena and rose geranium in the mornings, revelling in their fragrant beauty. Only peace.

There is no struggling in lighting tea light candles to fill my home with a warm glow on a gloomy afternoon when the sky is grey and stormy. Only peace.

There is no needing in strolling around the garden under the moonlight, breathing in the cool night air. Only peace.

Of all the lessons and blessings that I’ve uncovered over the last few years since I began more actively unshackling myself of things that don’t serve me and since I’ve devoted myself to a more spiritually inclined authentic path, learning to understand the nature of peace and what it means to me personally has been one of my most cherished lessons.

I am grateful to spend my days leaning into peace with ease, allowing it to find me in each breathe and in the simple ways of daily life.

What does peace mean to you? How do you lean into it?

IMG_20141117_133028