I have always found it difficult to step back from the daily responsibilities surrounding me. Yet now, as we are in the midst of heartache in our world, when I catch sight of the roses in the backyard they seem particularly vibrant, as if they are exhaling beauty. And I know to take a pause. Not from all the doing, but a pause to breathe, a pause to be where I am present.
A friend in Alaska recently told me that she works with individuals in the way of ‘co-listening.’ While this usually means people listening to audio together, she was referring to a different meaning – and this is what pause is all about.
To rest for a moment, to breathe with awareness of life – of the Earth – enables us to hold the enormity of grief at the harm of life that we witness daily.
I remember a dream of Sitting Bull, seated on a bare wooden chair in the center of a courtyard. He sat in stillness while chaos whirled around him.
Not that action is less important, but that in that moment, I was shown the power of stillness. How valuable it is to remember, again and again, this deep feminine way of being that requires a pause, a breath not caught in outer circumstances.
During a difficult time in my life, I finally had to stop trying, to stop doing. Then one night while sleeping, an image rose up, showing me a way forward. I saw, as if in a dream, a seed of compassion. It was alive, lit up against the darkness. This came because I had to pause. I had to listen for a different way to be.
I can’t help but think that we are cultivating these seeds for the Earth, for life itself.
This brings to mind a friend who lost a loved one a few years ago. She gave away many of her possessions when she needed to move to a smaller home. One day after the move, she was polishing a wooden table. She felt in that moment that it was important for her to just to love what was there, not what was left behind. She took a pause, in the simple act of polishing the wood. That night, a dream came to her. “A seed of hope was planted in my heart. Then out of my hands, I saw seeds pour into the earth”.
I wonder how many of us have been given a seed in a time of need….