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On Silence

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:14 am
by Elleth
I found it this morning - that stillness of soul that we seek in the woods.

I had come down the hill from the pasture, and unlike my usual treks stopped on a large stone to simply sit beside the pond.

It took a while after I'd started again to realize something was different.

I was moving without sound - not stalking as one seeks game, nor as one hides from danger - but merely because the stillness within could not bear to break the stillness without.

My feet wended through fallen branches, landing without conscious care only on soft wet leaves. Some ancient instinct must have been guiding my steps, one foot coming down canted here, the next going a bit wide there to miss a twig. Had I been trying, I could never have passed so quietly.

Eventually I broke through the woods into the clearing at the top of the hill, and turned to simply take in the rainy half-naked trees fading into the distance.
The spell did not break until I met the old logging road again.

How I missed this.

Re: On Silence

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 6:45 am
by Iodo
Sounds like it was a magical moment :P

Re: On Silence

Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 2:08 am
by Greg
And we wonder why we keep at this year after year, almost beyond count.

I was once told that, in parenting, don’t try to force ‘quality time’, just be intentional about ‘quantity of time’ spent with the kids, and those magical quality time moments will happen. Much of the same is true in the woods. More often than not, we’re too distracted by our mundane lives that wait for us to appreciate where we are. Keep going, and the good times will begin to outweigh the ‘okay’.

Re: On Silence

Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2018 6:38 am
by Taylor Steiner
My words are lost. They wouldn't do justice to the experience(s) you (we) have out there in the fields. In the trees or on the mountains. But let me say I too live for those moments. I'm glad I'm not alone in this as a Ranger/Person. Cheers and well met.

Re: On Silence

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 6:28 pm
by Odigan
This reminds me of a piece from this video wherein a Yamabushi priest describes his practice.

"To be frank, I am Yamabushi.
So I guess you are asking what exactly I am, right?
When you write "Yamabushi" in Japanese characters, it consists of two characters.
The first character means "Yama" for mountain, but the second character is made of two parts;
the left part means "person" and the right part means "dog."
In other words, you become an animal when going into the mountain.
Animals do not think too much; they can become part of the wilderness.
In the wilderness, you don't think, you only move as you feel (your surroundings).
Thus Yamabushi live in a world in which you only feel.
That's how I see it.
Yamabushi sense the world around them."

-Master Hoshino

Re: On Silence

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 6:48 pm
by Greg
Now that's pretty cool.

Re: On Silence

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 9:36 pm
by Iodo
Agreed :P

Re: On Silence

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:58 pm
by BrianGrubbs
Elleth,

I'm not sure if anyone has told you this or not, but your ability to describe something is downright poetic. I was completely transported into the moment, thank you for that!

Brian

Re: On Silence

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2018 3:14 pm
by BrianGrubbs
It made me think of this poem by Wendell Berry. I was going to post it yesterday, but couldn't remember the title.

"When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free."

Brian