Pay attention to the whispers
Finding beauty in the stillness
Hello, dear one,
Yesterday I began outside on the deck of the place where we’re staying in Northern California—the sweet smell of a beeswax candle mixed with the salty scent of the water nearby. I found myself surrounded by coastal pine trees (literally!) dripping in moss gently blowing in the cool morning breeze (photographic proof below).
I breathed in the moment listening to this song on repeat and lay down on my back to look up at the clouds, noticing how they mimicked the whimsy of the moss, swept into wispy tendrils by the way up high wind.
Every detail, every breath, each sensation, the tears that gently formed at the corners of my eyes, brought me deeper into the exquisite nature of the present moment.
I stayed beyond the discomfort found in stillness that often wells up in me after prolonged periods of rushing through weeks full of todos, appointments, events, etc. I stayed beyond the urge to get up and get on with things. I stayed until I felt my whole body exhale and the tears slid from the corners of my eyes, down my cheeks, onto the ground below.
Release, let go, surrender.
There, held by the earth, witnessed by the sky, I let myself be truly astonished by the beauty surrounding me, was within me, moving through me.
When I sat up I opened a book of poetry I’d carried with me from home and read Mary Oliver’s Whispers aloud and the tears came again.
I let my heart break wide open as the resonance of her words washed over me. With poetic precision, they described the exact experience I was feeling then, and have felt so many times before. The heartache and longing for what is right in front of you only to be confronted by the deep despair of how often it is missed in the act of living not in the here and now but always somewhere else, in the past, the future, or an entirely different reality altogether.
I read it again to share with you here:
May we slow down long enough to truly taste the sweet pleasure of honey.
May we not only fill our lungs but FEEL them as they expand and contract, a natural bridge to the present.
May we dare to linger in stillness long enough to locate the same belonging and happiness within us that resides inherently in the birds and all beings.
And may we return again and again to that place inside that connects us to everything and everywhere, always gently returning.
With love,
Raina
As promised, the coastal pine trees dripping with moss:
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