The Pause, Mindfulness

Mindfulness
“LOVE AFTER LOVE
The time will come when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.” -Derek Walcott
I was reading a blog this morning where the author talked of silence. The silence just before dawn or when the storm ends or beautifully when the door closes and you are left alone in your home, or the expectant pause before someone begins their speech.
The silence in the pause, it is a mindful undertaking to be able to hear this pause, however it begins as this introduces yourself to yourself.
It teaches us to fall awake, rather than fall asleep.
We live in an era of 24/7 connectivity, fast –fast- fast, lists, emails, skype, to do’s that never end.
It is so easy to lose sight of who we are in all this.
I am definitely not knocking this new way of life I personally love it, the information super highway and the instant messaging. But maybe we have to call ourselves on our mobile cell phones and ask “Are you there Margo?”
“Who are we”? As Socrates bold statement says “An unexamined life is not worth living”
Who are you, you are not who you think you are, not matter what you think, and of course that in itself can be terrifying. We are not our stories or our opinions of ourselves or others, this does not define us. We are not the conflict that rages sometimes in our minds.
Learning to become mindful is an opportunity for everyone.
It is beyond the senses, the 5 anyway, and into the 6th sense, the knowing sense, the sense that can be entered into through the pause, through the breath, through poetry, through deep listening.
Then the other 5 senses can be used in the understanding of the 6th not in the pull from the charge away from knowing and wanting to avoid pain and suffering through material comforting and strong opinions; a blanket that covers the knowing, we can with practise use the 5 senses to see more clearly to hear more dearly.
Use the pause it is so precious.
All the very best
With love of the Universe we share
Margo