That's what the radio piece was about: how residents of Newton are being driven mad by the constant roar of leafblowers. It was no stretch for me to take a walk in their shoes. Before moving to Maine, I lived in a wonderful house on a postage stamp lot. There were so many days when I stepped out to the back yard, seeking a quiet moment in the garden, only to hear some neighbor's noisy machinery roar into action.
I now live on a pond in the woods. On almost a daily basis, weather permitting, I hop in my kayak for a sometimes vigorous, sometimes lazy paddle. I usually make a ritual of leaving all my cares on shore and go off to seek the stillness. Before too long, my thoughts turn off and "stillness speaks."
That phrase is borrowed from Eckhart Tolle. I'm a big fan. He is all about stillness and being present. He probably would like my stillness practice. But he would also say we need to find stillness wherever we are. That it is a condition we must create within so we do not need to rely on an environmental one, like my pond and woods. (Although the environment helps, and I wish you were here.)
Which leads me back to the folks in Newton. Shutting out the sound of those mechanical tornadoes is not easy, but having a stillness practice might help. My old house was on a commuter street. Late at night, one car per hour might drive by. But starting around 5 am came the delivery trucks, the school buses, and all the workers heading into town. And of course the sirens. At first, it would wake me and keep me awake. But I began to tune in to the silence inside my room. Soon I no longer heard the noise outside.
Like the Newton folks, many people live in situations where stillness is a precious commodity. And Tolle has taught me, "Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found." So, developing a stillness practice is one of the most important gifts you can give yourself.
Thanks for your wisdom, ET. Oh, and ET, I bet you don't even own a leafblower, right?
Copyright 2007 starfishdoc
7 comments:
Another great story to share with us. I guess I'll have to pick up a copy of ET's "Stillness Speaks". And there is something to be said for a kayak ride.
Stratolynne,
Thanks for your warm response. Yes, ET's the man. And next time you find your way to Maine, we'll kayak together. Better hurry: we're getting into hunting season!
"Stillness" has evaded me my whole life. Most people who know me liken me to a squirrel-into everything for only a fleeting moment.
Rather than fight against who I am, I've found certain activities-mostly sports: spinning, running, yoga-get me closest to stillness as I can get.
After struggling with meditating practices to find stillness, I found my own way to achieve it.
I guess even squirrels can achieve stillness too
Court,
You've said something really important here. I think there are plenty of people out there who think there's only one path to stillness. They may even feel inadequate because they can't do it like others do. Thanks for showing others, especially those high energy types, that there are other ways to stillness. We should talk more about this....
Blame it on Oprah-I picked up Mr Tolle's new book on the recommendation of a friend and started reading.
Being someone with such an active mind and inner monologue, perhaps you could expand in a future post about the layman's guide to the ego? How do we liberate ourselves from our ego when we perhaps weren't aware of it in the first place? Oof, my head already hurts ;)
Court,
So glad you mention ego! It's one of my favorite topics and yet I haven't written much about it. I will take you up on your suggestion within the next week or two.
yay! I'll keep reading on...this is some interesting stuff!
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