a (Connecticut) walk in the woods... Thanks Natasha!
"Silence is where you find it. Or at least it can be.
Some of us have particular places where the silence and stillness are most apparent to us. A walk in the woods, perhaps, or through a park near the place where we live.
Some would choose a great cathedral or a quiet little chapel. Still others, when you mention the word silence to them, fix their minds on a corner in their home or in their own backyard. Or a favourite spot on a hillside or near a stream that they love.
Some of us remember times of day or seasons of the year. Times when we noticed that the world was a quiet place and that it welcomed us into its stillness. And that we felt at home there somehow, in a way that we had not before.
Even those of us who claim to enjoy the silence the least, or whose lives are the most filled with hustle and bustle and noise, have within us a longing to be still and to be quiet. It is a part and parcel of who we are and how we are made. And it is a part of us that calls out to be claimed and cherished and nurtured and fed.
Our consumer society urges us to go and do as often as we can. And sometimes it seems as though every step we take leads to another step or six or seven, and before we can make one or two in that direction we are going further and doing more and trying to be something else.
Sometimes I am a little afraid that the world is going so fast that it will pass me by. Other times I worry that I cannot get the world to go away even on the days that I want it to.
But if the way in which I live does not have some silence and solitude and stillness and rest, then there is only one person to blame in the end. There is only one person who can, in fact, get me to do less and not more, to stop moving and be still, to slow down instead of speed up. And I am that person."
(from: A Good Life - Benedict's Guide to Everyday Joy - Robert Benson)
Inglis River, Wynyard, TAS
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