In December 2009, there was a blog challenge Frank Maier (an unschooling dad) picked up, and I copied, and some other people copied me, or him, and it's going around. Each day there's something to write about the best [whatever] of 2009.
One day it was "peace," and I wrote some on my blog and put some photos. I wrote about my back gate, and about being in person with Kirby in September. I'll include those accounts below.
It wasn't until I read what Frank wrote that I remembered my whole "Big Noisy Peace" idea--that peace doesn't need quiet or solitude. Frank's is awesome and he's talking about his wife (who's on this list, I think, and other unschooling places as "df" or dragonfly or Ronnie) and daughters...
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Moment of peace (December blogfest)
Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?I was thinking about skipping this one but then decided to give my take on it. For me, the idea espoused here equates to internal stillness. I know people who meditate. I think I understand the concept. The closest I come to that is when I'm soaking in the bathtub/shower, my mind floating among the quanta. Otherwise, my brain is always gnawing at something. Always. Except...
Interestingly, I frequently achieve a significant, mind-expanded inner stillness during animated conversations among the four of us. Chloe, MJ, Ronnie, and I will be engaged in a spirited discussion which will then mutate to the point where the three of them are embroiled in some specific concept, leaving me in a quiet conversational eddy. As I sit and watch them attempt to unscrew the inscrutable, I find myself slipping into an exceedingly peaceful state, my awareness open but unengaged, not actively gnawing at anything, my needs nonexistent, my wants nonexistent, the flow of time nonexistent. Ronnie, MJ, and Chloe are intensely engaged, their minds integrating, synthesizing, their brilliant exchanges of energetic thought almost visible in their intensity; but in those moments I feel that I am a stillness at the center of things, the shanti of the East.
The farewell to 2009 item for today is Peace, and was worded this way:
December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?Why does "solitude" need to go with "peace"? But I do know how I got there.
Keith made a wooden gate from our back yard into the alley. The first photo of the wooden gate I found when I went to look was this:
When I saw Kirby in September even though it was a very busy several days, there were a few moments when I stood touching him or held his hand, or leaned on him, and felt how strong and grown he is. I smelled his hair and loved him, even though he's not a little boy anymore. I was at peace with my son. We got to that peaceful place by not screwing it up. We got there with love. (And I'm grateful to Flo Gascon's Good Vibrations Conference for literally getting us there, in the same place, in September 2009, and to the Sorooshian family for letting us stay at their house the night before and driving us to San Diego.)
