Stillness

This past week I have been preparing for a RS lesson on - Stillness. As I have pondered I have come to realize how important daily moments of stillness are to our well-being. A few years ago I helped a friend with her masters degree project on "A Secret Place". She wrote poetry and created paintings on this theme. (I brainstormed with her and edited her writing. It was so fun!) Her introductory poem conveys what I want the sisters to understand:

A Secret Place

Finding silent spaces isn't easy

A noisy world clamors relentlessly.

Paralyzing my perceptions.

Roaring obsessions. . .

Technology, tools, toys -- a ravenous need to fill the void.

Complacence spawns unintelligible babble.

Hollow confusion assaults every sensation.

I become a non-entity, a passive receptor

In a fragmented universe. Always doing rather than being.

Finding silent spaces isn't easy.

But when I am weary of inane repetition,

Longing to ban irksome mind chatter,

And sit quietly with no task,

Breathe easily with no apprehension,

Entertain wild ideas not visible before,

Recover something forgotten. . .

When I yearn to lean into magenta, blue, and violet

Allowing patterns of meaning to wash over

My original self

It is then I escape to my secret place

Where I absorb amazing silence and carry it with me

When I leave.

Jennifer Davis Sorensen

The place is not as important as the quiet you will find - to be still, to think, to breathe deeply, and feel His peace. The amount of time is not important. It might be better to find a ten-minute block of time one or two days a week to be still, than to decide being still is not possible because we do not have an extra hour in our schedule!

"Do not go with any agenda except to be still, to do nothing, to sit quietly. The Lord can better guide your soul. Take something with you to write on, for when you are still, God can speak to you." Carolyn J. Rasmus, simplify, pg 22

"We need to build ourselves spiritually. We live in a world of rush and go, of running here and there and in every direction. We are a very busy people. We have so much to do. We need to get off by ourselves once in a while and think of the spiritual things and build ourselves spiritually. If you have a study at home, lock yourselves in it. If you have a place in the basement where you can be by yourself, go there. Get by yourself and think of things of the Lord. . .Just meditate and reflect. . . about yourself and your relationship to your Heavenly Father and your Redeemer. It will do something for you." Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley, 608-09

K went on his 3 mile walk this morning with his camera while I drove to a bridal shower. There had been fog during the night and as the sun rose this morning there was a beautiful world before our eyes. This picture conveys stillness, peace, beauty, and a priceless gift from our Heavenly Father.