Floating on Stillness

The other evening, after a full and hurried day, I realised that while I could just chill with a book on the couch, what I really needed was to run up a peak in fresh air. Fortunately for me I have a good selection of peaks nearby! Being pretty close to sunset I decided on Steenberg from Ou Kaapse Weg, but when I started walking I realised that what I actually needed was to just sit and pause my mind, body and soul. I remembered the little lily pond nearby so I went and sat on the green moss at the edge of the water, surrounded by fynbos, watching the water insects skimming delicate ripples on the otherwise still surface, listening to frogs' chorus, breathing in the cool, crisp air. Although my mind constantly wandered far and wide, in time and space, dreams and reality, it still kept coming back to what I was sensing right there and then until eventually, for a beautiful, precious moment, I floated on my own deep stillness.

Floating on Stillness

The gift of stillness is a wonderful, extremely precious gift that we can give ourselves, rare only by choice; in our hurried, harried days, there are actually so many moments when we can take a few breaths as we slip our minds out into some fresh, still air.