dirtylibrarian

Something I've been thinking about a good deal lately, but haven't really blogged about is the idea of cultivating stillness.  I'm not sure where I first heard this particular phrase, but it has stuck in my head, and I try to use the idea of it when I am feeling anxious or fidgety.  Particularly in meetings where I am supposed to be behaving like an adult.

And now it is coming up more regularly and I'm finding I can relax better, exercise with less pain, and generally stay calmer, because when I find stillness, I can listen to my body and instincts better, too.

A quote I came across today made me think about posting on this topic:

We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us, that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet.

--W.B. Yeats

Yes!

Theoretically, I've been trying to take up meditation too, but haven't gotten terribly far with it.  But clear, fierce quiet seems like a nice start.

The Sierra Club sends out a nice little thing called Daily Ray of Hope. It is really nice to get hope in your inbox. This is from Wednesday:


I've made an odd discovery.
Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility.
Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite.

-- Bertrand Russell