I find myself gathering quotes, poems, and words of wisdom from those who inspire me. Sharing one quote and some writing it inspired.
From “The Painted Drum,” by Louise Erdrich
“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”
And some recent writing from me…
It is rare that we invite the mind to become still. The spaces in between our thoughts and our actions seem to elude us. When our systems are in need of that grace, that time of “nothingness,” we just forget, or ignore, the need to allow for its arrival. And when we are so focused on doing and being present in the material world, we forget that the stillness even exists.
Our truest self, if you will, tries to make itself known amidst the chaos that we might identify with more easily. We ignore our innermost truths when we think that our thoughts are real, and facts. Instead of mindfully “watching” our thoughts and observing them, we “hook into them.” But, it is in the space between our thoughts, our actions, our “doing,” where the peace arrives.
Ironically, peace never left us, for it is, and always has been there. We just forget to look inside in order to find it. We continue to look for it outside of ourselves. We look for it in other people. The material world. Experiences. Substances. Then, of course, these “external things” and constantly disappoint us, for they really aren’t there to fulfill us in the first place. They actually distract us, from our truest self.
In the deepest caverns of our souls lies a peaceful centered spot, one that if we were to actually walk towards, and into, would welcome and support our true nature. When we are centered into ourselves, as if riding a wave, our breath and sense of peace can take us inward, to where that stillness has been waiting for us the whole time. Welcome home.
