“Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.”
~Wayne Dyer
As September arrives, I feel a little melancholy watching summer fade. Temps get cooler, migrating animals have left or are getting ready to leave. And the colors shift in the garden…..trees and plants start to sport tinges of yellow and red. And I know soon enough all here will be covered in nature’s blanket of white. I can’t help but feel a bit sad.
But with all the changes the shift in seasons brings, the most startling of all for me is the stillness of nature. There are few sounds remaining from the frenzy of the start of spring and the busyness of summer. Hardly a bird singing or a frog croaking. All I hear is the rush of the pond’s waterfall….such a soothing sound in the rushing water.
The Healing Properties of the Stillness
And with this stillness of nature, the silence around me, I feel refreshed. It’s as if nature is reminding me it is time to slow down and relax a bit….drink in the bliss the stillness brings. And what a contrast from my days of laboring in a teaching job, when this time of year signaled coming back to busyness….a ramping up of the workload. Secretly I had always longed to luxuriate in the relaxation of late summer/early fall where even the trees were letting go. Wishing as I was starting work, that I could breath in the stillness of nature and just be.
The stillness that envelopes me in my garden, that I connect to now, is the Universal flow. And I have learned that as I meld with that flow and allow it to unfold, my path, my life, will be easier. I will connect more with my bliss in this flow. Unlike all the times I resisted the flow and ended up a bit more bruised than I would have liked.
How To Heal In The Stillness
One of the most wonderful things about silence is its healing properties. Have you ever longed to shut out the noises all around you. Even nature’s music can be noise when mixed with the drone of the engines and noises of our modern life. There is a balancing my body goes through in this silence…a peace and solace that descends upon me. A deep healing on a molecular level.
It is important to have time in stillness…to slow down to recharge ourselves. And I have found a few things that help me, even when the busyness of life is all about me:
- Taking time out several times a day to just stare out at the beauty of nature
- Doing nothing, and allowing that time to increase from one minute to 5. This is hard for so many of us as we move through our busy lives without thinking about what we are doing.
- Trying every day to be outside, to feel nature about me, even in the rush of a busy street. Noticing the sky, the clouds, plants, feeling the sun or cool wind on my skin.
- Walking on the bare ground to feel my feet on the earth. This is called grounding, and it has an amazing effect on me.
- Deep, slow breathing. Breath in for 10 and out for 10…and do this 10 times. It slows my anxiety level right down.
- And of course finding times in silence. Sometimes when it is quiet at home, I read or wander in the garden pulling weeds or capturing scenes with my camera. Even just watching a bee can be so soothing.
How do you slow down and practice stillness? What works for you?
Stillness In A Vase
The garden can fade quickly, but in our warm September days flowers are lasting longer. The native meadows are especially glowing with golden blooms bringing me solace to see them swaying. I love these sunny yellows in my meadow and garden, and picked several for a vase. These all volunteer in my back garden with abandon.
This vase is filled with late summer native plants: Northern Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) and Goldenrod (Solidago). I have profiled some of these on this blog in the past. You can find them listed on my new Favorite Native Plants page listing native plants that I have profiled that grow in my garden. You can see it at the top of the blog or on the side bar. I will continue to add to the list as I profile more native plants growing in my garden.
I am joining Cathy@Rambling in the Garden for her wonderful In A Vase on Monday meme. The pictures shared here were created with my iPod Touch camera and two free apps, Pixlr and Prisma.
I am posting poetry, almost weekly on Sundays, on my other blog, Living From Happiness. You can read my latest poem here.
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