This Week's Quotation:
Everything that’s created comes out of silence. Your thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Your words come out of this void. Your very essence emerged from emptiness. All creativity requires some stillness.
~Wayne Dyer
The Power in the Pause
Rev. Berry Behr, Global Interfaith Ambassador
Progress is seldom evenly paced. It moves sometimes quickly, at other times slowly. There are moments when everything appears to pause. Does that mean no progress is being made? When baking bread, you mix the ingredients, knead the dough, then leave it, covered, for some time. The pause allows the yeast to do its work. In the stillness, something is moving, something grows; something is being processed.
Life for many people is all about busyness, productivity, and getting things done. It happens to me all the time. I had to learn to regularly take a breath, step back, and reconnect to God through my inner stillness. Strategies for stillness have become a valued component of my life, and even though the temptation to “get it done” is always there, it is the mindful pause before the action that directs the progress of my process.
Every night I go over my schedule for the next day so it is structured in my mind. Every morning, I meditate, read, and shower before work. For me, that shower is part of the holy time; it feels like both an anointing and a cleansing of much more than my physical self. Water is sacred—that daily communion with water is a time of deepening my connection to the Source of my Being. My thoughts pause in the presence of water. Then, ideas and insights seem to land out of nowhere; many times I have been surprised by a thought that inspired a different approach to something I was planning that day. It’s a whisp of communication between me and the Source of my Being, an answer to a prayer I didn’t know I was praying.
During an interfaith dialogue session spiritual leaders on three continents, from four different faith traditions, discussed amongst other things, the meaning of prayer. Knowing sacredness through stillness within was a shared experience across beliefs and geography. No matter what your faith, there is universal wisdom in the Biblical Psalm 46:10 which tells us to Be still, and know that I am God. When stillness lives within you, there is no moment that is not prayer. There is nowhere that is not sacred.
At the core of every action is the stillness. We are learning to carry stillness within. We are learning to pray without ceasing. We are learning to co-create a new world.
About Open Windows
We, the authors of this blog, dedicate it to the transparent exploration of the world’s sacred scripture and enlightened spiritual thought. We believe that the original inspiration of all faiths comes from a common source, named and revered in a myriad of ways. With that understanding, the innumerable symbols, beliefs, and practices of faith cease to divide. They become open windows to a common reality that inspires and unifies us. We find deeper insight and nourishment in our own faith and from the expression of faith from others.
We hope these weekly quotations and meditations speak to your heart and soul.
Just love this – thank you so much – very needed today….
Your offering of the soul also brought a deep reminder of my bread-making days – I didn’t realize how much I missed them. My husband was Jewish and his family loved Challah. If anyone reading doesn’t know what that is – you have a treat to check out. The days I made Challah offered me such great peace and a joyful outcome. My guess is any kind of bread-making would do the same.
We all just need to find our own personal peace – often through our own personal creative offering to our world – even if it is for one person at a time. Blessings All….
Thank you so much Berry! When life is so much about ‘doing’ it can be a challenge to just be still. I face that challenge every day and your words have brought me a much needed reminder. Thank you again, my dear!
I love what Wayne D. and Berry B. say about stillness. You don’t even have to speak the same language or speak at all to share sacredness. Stillness, silence, and sacredness provide a cradle for the birth of all which needs to come forth through me. IN one First Nation there was the teachiing that one must be silent before speaking for as long as one would be speaking. This transforms the economy and precision of what comes forth – and it also allows one to go to the Sacred place before bringing something to others. BE STILL AND KNOW! Yes! Love, Tom C.
I especially agree, Berry, with your words about water: “Water is sacred—that daily communion with water is a time of deepening my connection to the Source of my Being.” I spend a lot of time hand-watering sections of the huge lawn that I take care. As I spray the grass with water, I am not only aware that I am blessing Nature but also very conscious of blessing my own physical form with its capacities of thought and emotion and beyond that sending Love and Life to the whole body of humanity.