STILLNESS

Here we go again!

I sought out this post from last year so that I could be reminded that there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is stillness at the end of the madness!

My Commencement planning starts in November but it builds like a snowball rolling down a mountain. I will soon be in the midst of the madness and I love it. I wouldn’t change a thing. But I need to remember to take care of myself in these upcoming weeks.

The Reward

It’s so rewarding when I watch our students walk down the aisle to receive their diplomas. Even if there are glitches, we quietly take care of it so that no one notices. It all just comes together and I can walk out of that Graduation feeling satisfied that it was another year of a job well done.

So I am publishing this post one more time, mainly to remind myself to find time to be still. These moments of stillness help get me through the madness that comes with planning something so important to others.

LIFE GETS CRAZY

SO…. here is the the post from last year. I was seeking the stillness after weeks of planning and organizing. Reading this again calms me. It’s a gentle reminder that life will return to normal in June!

JUNE 2018 …

It’s time for stillness! My two weeks of craziness at work are complete. I have executed another successful Commencement Week for our graduating students. And I learned to DELEGATE, which was extremely difficult for me to do. Like a juggler, if I let go of one of the balls, the others might go rolling away! I hold tight to those balls most of the time. This year there were extra duties that I needed to take on, on top of the enormous task list that I already carried. So I delegated.

More Stress?

I still have not decided if delegation is the key. It seemed to cause more stress than if I would have just done it myself. Even though I hand over a few jobs to someone else, I am ultimately still the one who will be sought out if anything goes wrong. But I will continue to practice this newfound skill and hopefully learn to find stillness even in the chaos. Even if I just need to close my office door to find it, I need to sit and breathe during the crazy times. And I was reminded of this as I read an article in one of Oprah’s magazines this morning.

Getting Still

The voice in your head is constant. “I need to do ______”, or “I am ______”. It’s easy to mistake that voice for YOU until you’ve been still enough to know otherwise. Meditation is about getting still enough to know the difference between the voice and you. – Oprah

Essential Nature

Stillness is your essential nature. When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. -Eckhart Toll

LEARNING TO JUST BE

Many times over the years I have done the formal meditation and still do when I have a free block of time. There are times I have put headphones on and listened to guided meditations. I have tried to sit in stillness and have taken classes on meditation. All of those are wonderful.

But over the years I have learned to just BE. Stillness doesn’t have to be about sitting cross legged on the ground for minutes or hours, trying to empty your mind. There are so many day to day moments that can be captured to help calm the soul.

Just Taking a Breath

Some mornings I wake up and go downstairs to get my coffee before work. I open the back door, stand on the porch and breath the fresh morning air while I listen to the earth waking up around me.

Or Just Sit

Something that I do often ( I had no idea this was even happening) is to sit outside with nothing in my hand, no book, no music, no phone! I just sit. I didn’t really even realize I was doing this until Roger started asking me what was wrong. When I wanted to know why he asked that, he would say that he noticed I would go off on my own at times and just sit staring into space.

He wanted to know what I was thinking about when I did that. NOTHING! I was thinking nothing at all. It never occurred to me that this was even happening. It was automatic. My body must have known that it needed that time to heal. I now realize that is my meditation. I need that space. My soul needs that moment of quiet stillness to “reboot” or to heal or refresh. Whatever the reason, I am now glad that I have become aware of this event in my life.

TAKING MY SOUL BACK TO THE SEA

As I am preparing to travel back to Florida, I am reminded of a journal entry that I wrote a few years ago. It was a perfect day with not a cloud in the bright blue sky and the sea was calm that day. I had waded out pretty far and was letting the waves wash around me as I listened to music drifting out from the shore, barely audible.

My mind found itself melting into the universe. In trying to write my experience down I didn’t know how to put it into words other than to say that “I am in my heaven right at that moment”. I was between land and sea, air and earth! The only sounds I heard were the sea birds and the waves and occasional music washing over the water. And it was true bliss.

That is the stillness I crave. Especially during these crazy weeks at work or when life just gets in the way.

I will always search for those moments of stillness and moments of just BEING. Hopefully some of those moments will be found this coming week as my soul travels to the sea once again!

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