The more a man enters the light of understanding, the more aware he is of his own ignorance. And when the light reveals itself fully and unites with him and draws him into itself, so that he finds himself alone in a sea of light, then he is emptied of all knowledge and immersed in absolute unknowing
Simeon the New Theologian, 949–1022
Waiting is not a very popular attitude. Waiting is not something that people think about with great sympathy. In fact, most people consider waiting a waste of time. Perhaps this is because the culture in which we live is basically saying, “Get going! Do something! Show you are able to make a difference! Don’t just sit there and wait!” For many people, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go. And people do not like such a place. They want to get out of it by doing something…
Most of us think of waiting as something very passive, a hopeless state determined by events totally out of our hands…But there is none of this passivity in scripture. Those who are waiting are waiting very actively. They know that what they are waiting for is growing from the ground on which they are standing…Active waiting means to be present fully to the moment, in the conviction that something is happening where you are and that you want to be present to it… Waiting is essential to the spiritual life.
Henri Nouwen, Waiting for God
photo nir b
Let the mind rest at peace.
The Ten Thousand Things rise and fall, while the self watches their return.
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
photo eric hill
The paradox is indeed that new life is born
out of the pains of the old.
Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out.
photo david lally
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest
and I smile and am silent and even my soul remains quiet;
It lives in the world that no one owns.
Trees blossom.
Water flows.
Li Po, 701 – 762
Often we can find that our body tenses up at moments of transition, such as Sunday evenings, or in the anticipation of something which will happen tomorrow or in a few days. This can even affect our sleep as the mind switches into problem-solving mode, and works on resolving what is perceives as a type of “danger”. We can easily become agitated, and there is a sense in which our spirit gets jittery, or in a type of “flux”. As the poet does here, this is precisely the time we need to create some space – maybe in meditation or getting out in nature – which will “hold us”, allowing us to become calm again. In this way the power of tomorrow over our spirit today is weakened.
It is time now, I said,
For the deepening and quieting of the spirit
Among the flux of happenings.
Something had pestered me so much
I thought my heart would break.
I mean the mechanical part.
I went down in the afternoon
To the sea
Which held me, until I grew easy.
About tomorrow, who knows anything.
Except that it will be a time, again,
For the deepening and the quieting of the spirit.
Mary Oliver, Swimming, One Day in August
Photo: Glendalough on a soft day, April 5th 2014
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