Listening to Sacred Stillness: Just Rocking and Listening

Rocking and Listening

There are times when we all need some rocking and listening.

The news can be overwhelmingly full of disasters, natural and otherwise. We are working so hard and do not seem to be making much real progress. It can feel like we are just falling further and further behind. Even the weather seems to be against us as summer abandons us and autumn takes its place.

The first week of October could be our last opportunity for a while to sit rocking and listening.

Rocking seems to help. It is as if rocking is how our bodies take time to listen without coming to a complete stop.

We spend  a lot of our time anxious about keeping up or getting ahead. Come over here and sit next to me for a little while, just rocking and listening.

First we sit down. There are rocking chairs on the porch and we can look out to watch the world go by. We may want to sit looking out over the ocean, or the mountains, or the neighborhood. It may be the sunrise or the sunset which gets our attention, or a fire.

As we sit rocking, we can begin to listen. We hear the voices all around us, and within us. There are all the things we heard all day or all week. We may have heard gunshots and screaming. It may be the sounds of traffic or arguing. The sounds of hurricanes and earthquakes may ring in our ears. Slowly but surely we can release them and let go for a few minutes. Even more slowly, they let go of us, just for a few minutes.

As the sounds recede from our minds we can begin to listen to sacred stillness.

Listening to Sacred Stillness

We sit together on the porch just rocking and listening.

Some people may tell us we need to get busy doing something. Times are urgent and we need to make a difference. While these are urgent times, we have a few minutes to sit rocking and listening.

We breathe in deeply and breathe out. We release our tight grip on responsibilities and concerns for a few minutes. All we need to do right now, in this moment, is sit in our chairs rocking and listening.

It does not mean our problems are solved or we have done all we need to do. We listen to sacred stillness to be reminded of its depth and immensity. There is more sacred stillness than we can absorb, and there always will be. We cannot exhaust its power and resources.

It is neither necessary nor important for us to discuss philosophical or theological truths. There is no need for us to even speak at all. Our words, our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, are not essential. Sacred stillness absorbs whatever we could do or say, whatever we think or feel.

It is enough for us to sit and rest, rocking and listening to sacred stillness.

We sit together, rocking and listening to the stillness which is beyond our understanding. What more could we need?

Our listening may help us remember deep truths and intimate relationships. We release our tight control on our own ideas and they fit themselves together in new ways.

Breathing deeply and rocking gently allows us to listen, which makes all the difference.

Making Time to Listen

We are immersed in sacred stillness, but we often are not paying attention. So many things distract us and draw our focus away. When we are reminded of the depth of sacred stillness we can be caught off guard.

Unless we make time for rocking and listening we may just skim along the surface.

Things and people demand our time and attention. It feels like we always have “just one more” thing to do. Rocking and listening are rarely our highest priorities. We build our schedules around other things.

We tend to see rocking and listening as unproductive ways to spend our time. Why would waste our time when we could be getting something accomplished?

The fact is it is easy for us to get off course when we are not listening to sacred stillness. Our many potential priorities confuse us and we head off in unproductive directions. Just a few minutes of rocking and listening help us remember where we are trying to go.

A few deep breaths and some deep listening help us remember who we are and inspires us.

It is not that we do not care or are unaware about what is going on around us. The world is filled with people who need our help. Listening to sacred stillness prepares us to help them.

Listening to sacred stillness teaches us how to listen well. If we do not make time to listen to deep, sacred stillness, who will get us to listen?

These few moments give us something to remember when we get so busy later.

Exploring Hidden Depths

We sit here together, rocking and listening to sacred stillness just for a little while. Our willingness to give time to sacred stillness demonstrates our respect for it. We share this moment, beyond words, with each other and with the deep power of sacred stillness.

Sacred stillness clears our heads and our hearts, opening us to the truths all around us. We have forgotten, we have missed it, and the stillness helps us remember.

Our listening is not about conquering or cataloging the stillness. We are not trying to control it, but letting it flow over us. Exploring the hidden depths of sacred stillness allows it to explore our hidden depths as well.

We listen and the sacred stillness draws us further into its depth.

Rocking and listening is not complicated, not challenging, not a goal to achieve. We are just a couple of friends, sitting on a porch, rocking and listening to sacred stillness.

How will we make time to listen to sacred stillness today?

Who will sit with us, rocking and listening this week?

[Image by Kathleen Tyler Conklin]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is [email protected].