I love to stand outside on a clear night when the moon is full...late at night, after everyone has gone to sleep. It's quieter then. The hum of electronic gadgetry is minimal. People are finally at rest. And I can breathe.
Silence, externally and internally is a precious gift. And on a full moon I find I enter that silence at deep levels. Light...depth...breath...silence. A favorite place of mine.
In honor of the full moon tomorrow night, I wanted to pass along these words by Brother David Stendl-Rast, a member of a Benedictine Community in Elmira, NY:
"What shall I wish for you at this season of gifts and good wishes? This year I would like to wish you the gift that makes room for all other gifts---I wish you deep inner stillness.
May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow.
May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at Earth's fiery core.
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.
'Peace!' the angel announced. But peace is as much task as gift.
Only if we become calm as earth, fluid as water, and blazing as fire are we able to rise to the task of peacemaking, and the air will stir with the rush of wings of angels arriving to help us.
This is why I wish you that great inner stillness which allows us to speak, even today, without irony, of 'peace on earth' and without despair, to work for it. Wishing you in this festive season and throughout the year to come, the joy that springs from doing all we can to realize peace. "
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