A Still-Point of Peace...

One-half hour of peace. This evening I sink into my t'ai chi chih practice outside on the deck. Yesterday's rains shrunk the snowpack, shriveled the piles of snow lining drive- and roadways, exposed areas of leaves and dirt in the midst of the forest, and revealed rivulets of running water.

It's a quiet, chill, cloud-covered day and still there's this: one-half hour of peace. I am grateful for this peace and calm and quiet, grateful for time by myself to sink ever deeper into silence. During an earlier phone conversation with my brother we shared today's challenges and difficulties and he wondered aloud what wisdom might be contained in 365 Tao. As is often the case, the words I found were just right. It read, in part:

The mind that turns ever outward
Will have no end to craving.
Only the mind turned inward
Will find a still-point of peace....

True reality lies in withdrawal from the swirling variations of the outside world. It lies in looking within and then slowly peeling away the layers of subjectivity. What will remain is not a core of objectivity, but a kernel of truth that absorbs rather than reflects. If we enter into this kernel, our minds cease to continue their habits of creating stimulating realities, and we enter into a silence that feels perfect and whole. (p. 71)

Yes, I desperately needed today's t'ai chi chih practice. The swirls abated, the mind calmed, the body slowed, and peace prevailed. Shhhh....