The article below was posted last September. Though Snowy is no longer alive the lesson of this article is timeless and as Sandy raged through our cities and neighborhoods, I couldn’t help but reflect on how still we (those of us in her path) were forced to become.
Right after the winds stopped beating up on my house, I sat by candle light listening to the silence of no electrical devices humming, no cars or movement of any kind. It was a very loud silence. 🙂
I remembered Snowy and how he knew so well what to do when he needed to be still. Je just STOPPED and became still. This obvious lesson often eludes us humans. We wait until our body says “enough is enough” and develop some effective and perhaps painful way of getting our attention. Or, we complain about “no power” until we realize the wisdom of just being still.
Granted, no electrical power as many on the East coast of the US have had to contend with this week (and many still are) is not fun, and for many it is a serious loss of business, property and income. I cannot make light of those serious consequences.
If there is nothing that can be done about it though, we ought to make the best of what has happened and move forward.
What can you do in the midst of (or right after) a storm, when there is nothing more to do but be still?
1. Listen to the silence and invite it in
2. Sit comfortably, close your eyes and merge with your surroundings
3. Learn to feel everything around you in order to identify – including your emotions
4. Accept what is and ask for guidance (then LISTEN)
5. Sleep
6. Pray for grace and the courage to accept what is
7. Listen to the rhythm of the wind and accept it
8. Light a candle or lamp and write – whatever you’d like
9. Read a favorite spiritual and/or calming book
10. Wrap up in a blanket and enjoy being alive
Stillness, like the pause in conversations and punctuations in writing is ESSENTIAL for our health and wellness. Practice being still each day…
Here’s the article about our beloved Snowy and his stillness (he developed a brain tumor and had to be put down earlier this year). 🙁
Snowy, being still to heal
Hello there!This is my dog Snowy…used to be my Mom’s and he is quite a yapper. But not today.
This morning I came downstairs to find him under the weather. Somehow his back leg is causing some pain and he is just not interested in walking, yapping or eating.
The lesson he reminded me of today is this: knowing when to be still and focus on healing is essential. Dogs and animals in general really do get this.
As I stroked him this morning, amazed at his calm demeanor, it hit me…”why don’t people know how to be more like dogs?” It seems like God has infused nature and animals with this ability to just know when to be still, sit, hibernate, play dead and when to be fully active, blossom and rise. Snowy just knew he had to be still today.
If we could just be still and focus all our energy on wellness, on healing, we would heal so much faster and deeper. It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? We only have but so much energy and just like with any crisis where “all hands on deck” is required, sometimes everybody (or all energy) needs to be assigned to just that one major job. If not, you run the risk of further and more damaging injury (ask any athlete!)
This is true not just for physical ailments. With psychic and emotional and spiritual wounds, stilling ourselves so we can divert all energy towards being well is the answer we tend to avoid. We seem to have a knack for avoiding the obvious and simpler solutions. Then life gets so much more complicated, relationships suffer and wholeness is deferred.
So follow Snowy’s lead…if there is anything needing some healing in your body, mind or spirit, be still and focus all energies on its healing. Just be still. And watch the miracles flow. 🙂
Wishing you an abundance of wisdom, stillness and health,
