Stillness

When my insides and my outsides don’t recognize one another anymore, I know it’s time for something to shift. Usually this happens when I give off a calm presence, but my insides are jumping around like hyped up monkeys who just devoured a chocolate bar. But sometimes I give off a hurried energy and inside I feel numb, like my body has hijacked my mind and I am on autopilot. Either way, I am out of sync and something needs to happen to bring me back to alignment or balance or calm or whatever word means that I am no longer a walking Godzilla movie were the sound doesn’t match the action.

This shift usually involves stillness so that whatever part of me has rushed ahead slows down and the part that is lagging behind has time to catch up. This is not easy to do somedays when the world is spinning fast and at the same time it also feels everything is happening in slow motion. Like I know Christmas is next week, but somehow a part of me is still in March when everything changed.

So, how do I get to stillness? It will only come with intention and a bit of grit. I need to find places and spaces, people and rituals, rhythms and reflections that speak to my soul. Somedays stillness may be found in a cup of hot chocolate or a bubble bath. It may come in child’s pose on a yoga mat or by taking a few deep breaths. A good laugh with a special friend or tears shed while reading a beautiful poem can bring us to that sacred space our soul desires, stillness.

Right now, this line from Psalm 23 speaks to my deepest need, maybe it will speak to yours too, “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” Maybe that restoring looks like calm and balance and alignment. Maybe you have something that speaks to your own soul.  And maybe if we become intentional and exercise a bit of grit our insides will say hello to our outsides and we will have shifted into a place that offers us rest.

– Cherie Shaw, CPE Intern