The constant and unrelenting motion of life can make us forget to notice the richness of stillness, of pause. A poem from Pablo Neruda to help you remember.
silence
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A reflection on living and aging through the poetry of Mary Oliver.
A poem from David Whyte on escaping the noise of the world, and listening instead to “questions that can make or unmake a life.”
After an exchange with an angry man, a poem about a woodland encounter bestows unexpected guidance — about how acknowledging the spaces we share can be what closes the gaps between us.
Waiting for test results in a hospital can be a solitary event. And unexpectedly quiet in certain waiting rooms. Jane Gross on the silent solidarity of women forged while waiting for the results of their mammogram tests each year.
It's when we sit with our silence that the world opens before us, in ways large and small. Parker Palmer reflects on Gunilla Norris' poetic words and the regrounding silence brings.
Feeling ill-equipped as a Yankee living in the South, a teacher in Charleston, South Carolina grapples with talking about race with her students and exploring the multiplicity of narratives we so often ignore.
In an increasingly frenetic world, emptying the mind in intentional silence can feel impossible. By returning to the Quaker tradition, one mother rediscovers the solace of communal stillness and embracing the busyness of her thoughts.
For World Suicide Prevention Day, a story of a son's loss of his father by suicide. The writer Eric Marcus talks about family silence, learning to share his story, and discovering compassion for his father and healing for himself.
As a society, we tend not to prioritize silence. When we take a moment to listen and to notice, we make space to be amazed. A meditation on silence, slowing down, and paying attention to allow us to be astonished and the people we want to be.
It is enough to be quiet and still. It’s probably best to be in nature, which is God’s untouched world, but if you can’t get there, just take time to find silence wherever you are. A meditation on stillness at Gethsemani, the abbey of Thomas Merton.
In silence, there is a depth of communion that trumps what we can achieve with words. In laughter, there is a depth of communion that trumps what we can achieve with solemnity. Parker Palmer on shadow and quiet.
Take a break from all of the talk about the planet on this Earth Day and spend a few moments listening to it.
So often it's the quiet moments with someone that cements and deepens a relationship. An acknowledgement (and a bit of a love letter) to the silence that joins us together.
Darkness draws out our deep-down depths. And, in the northern hemisphere, December’s darkness invites us inward. A lesson in wonder, an elegy for light, and a call to pay attention for the unbroken darkness of a December night.
With the grand jury's decision not to indict the police officer who killed Michael Brown, a school of children's uncommon silence in New Mexico leads the way to expressing grief and finding a role for our anger.
Poets and philosophers may be the mystics of our day, bridging the two worlds and bearing witness to seen and unseen.
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