Listening to Sacred Stillness: Remembering Autumn Stillness

Remembering Autumn Stillness

The autumns in my memory are filled with sacred stillness.

Now I live in a place where autumn is a concept. The temperature does not necessarily get colder though the hours of daylight grow shorter. Most of the trees remain green.

The transition from summer to autumn to winter now is measured in tiny increments.

Our seasons have more to do with featured flavors than with changes in the weather. We move from pomegranate to pumpkin spice to peppermint.

The autumn stillness I remember caused time to slow down and stand still. Each walk in the woods was its own era.

Autumn was a time of raking and burning leaves. Harvesting the results of summer’s hard work gave us food saved for the winter. Shocks of corn stalks, bales of hay, and pumpkins were more than decorations.

Autumn would give us the first days accurately described as cold, possibly the first snow.

Where I live now the weather does not really get that cold.

The chill and the darkness of autumn would draw us into its rhythm. We took our time making sure we were ready for another winter. Autumn was something we wanted to do right.

Each walk in the woods could be the last one until spring. The leaves exploded into colors. In the middle of a walk we might stand transfixed. The bright sun in the blue sky and the red, yellow, and brown leaves. It was one last celebration of color before the world turned black and white and grey.

Now, without that remembered autumn stillness, we speed from one thing to another. We need to make our own opportunities to stop and listen to the sacred stillness.

Making Time for Autumn Stillness

Our autumn stillness is more than a childhood memory. Even without the natural reminders of the autumns I remember, we listen to stillness.

First we remember. We sit, closing our eyes and listening back for the stillness which draws us into itself.

There are moments we remember when sacred stillness was all around us. We realized the stillness also filled us, pouring out into the rest of the world.

The sacred stillness within us listened to the sacred stillness which surrounded us. And the sacred stillness around us listened to the sacred stillness in our hearts.

It was one stillness.

No matter when it was or where we were, we listened to the stillness and it drew us in. As we remember, it happens again.

When we listen to sacred stillness we realize it has no limits. The same stillness fills us as fills the rest of the world. The sacred stillness was the same in the past as it is in the present, and will be the same in the future.

We forget autumn stillness when distracted by the noises around us and within us.

Each season has its own unique flavor of stillness. Summer stillness is an experience of lying in the sun, feeling its warmth. Autumn stillness feels more a calm before a storm. Winter and spring have their own flavors of stillness.

We get a small taste of autumn stillness and it lingers on the tongue of our minds. It is almost as if we need to distract ourselves to leave the distractions behind. We breathe in autumn’s aroma and remember the stillness we have listened to in the past.

Autumn stillness draws us from the busyness and distractions with which we fill our time.

Savoring Autumn Stillness

Remembering autumn stillness can be like recalling the flavor of our favorite dessert. We take time to remember and experience the flavors and texture again. It is not a matter of eating the same meal over and over. Our appreciation deepens and grows as we take time to savor what we have already eaten.

We may be allowing tastes to roll on our tongue again or listening to sacred stillness. We savor what we have experienced, reflecting and drawing new appreciation from it.

Whether it is sights or sounds or aromas which remind us, we remember autumn stillness. It may be geese flying overhead, smoke from an open fire, or leaves falling from trees. Autumn stillness comes back to us, filling our minds with sacred stillness.

We can choose to take time to savor what autumn has for us. Sitting or standing still, we give our permission for autumn to teach us its lessons. Listening to sacred stillness slows us down long enough to remember and learn.

Remembering how delicious autumn stillness can be opens us to taste more each day.

It may be a taste of coffee or the smell of smoke from a pipe. Our memory make be sparked by a particular song or a specific place. We remember and pause to listen to sacred autumn stillness.

What reminds us and what we hear when we listen are uniquely personal to each of us. No one else can describe the stillness we hear when we listen.

Listening to Sacred Autumn Stillness

It may feel like we are doing nothing, wasting our time. Why would we pause in our busy schedules, on purpose, to listen to sacred stillness? What difference does autumn stillness make in our lives, in our world?

Listening to sacred stillness changes us from the inside out. When we recognize the benefits, the importance of taking time we begin to change. Our inner lives become more open and our public lives become more honest.

Listening to sacred stillness will probably not solve all our problems immediately. Slowing down and remembering gives us opportunities to fit the pieces together in new ways.

As we begin to change we also show more of who we are to the people around us. We know ourselves better and can be more honest with ourselves.

Sacred stillness shows ourselves to ourselves. We take time to reflect on what we hear.

Autumn stillness whispers sacred truths in our ears.

When will you listen to sacred autumn stillness today?

What lessons does autumn stillness have for you this week?

[Image by Vironevaeh]

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].