There is a message of silence and peace in the body composure of the Gulls in the above photos!!
This restful posture was following the morning ritual of movements, grooming and feeding!
An in between pause from the routine is, what would make us prepare for interior silence!
Every activity creates within us thoughts, feelings and returns which affect our consciousness and mental orientation. If an activity has created within us a joyful experience, we are in a state of comfort. In case an activity brought difficulties and strain, what we are left with, would be feelings of discomfort and disquiet. Inwardly we are in this dynamic state where we swing between comfort and discomfort. A stationary inner state is an infrequent experience for many of us.
Abstaining from activities for short spells of time during the day, when we return for inward consciousness is a good exercise, to create within us another level of awareness that 'we live, move and have our being in God'! Our external circumstances do not become the only ambience inwardly. I get a sense from the recent events in my life that we can protect ourselves from the external situations to disturb us. Instead we can move and become present in the way we choose, in the light of sense of coherence we feel during short periods of interior silence.
From the interior silence would spring the experience of rest, where thoughts settle down, and God's embrace becomes experiential!
I like the last photo because, in the body stillness the Gull leaves its shadow on the ground, when the sun shined on its body.
It is the sunshine while being still, which made the Gull to spread its shadow around its presence.
The bodily stillness, interior quietness and God's presence shining upon us are intertwined acing us radiant people!
What do we gain when we get used to five to seven minutes of 'retuning to ourselves' in during our work? The three experiences which I feel would occur most of the times are: respite from the insensitivity of work, when we can take deep breaths, stretch our body and move our limbs; this improves the blood circulation in the body and a new sense of alertness comes upon us; become quiet in mind and feel distant form the thoughts that remained within us till then. In that stillness of the body and silence within, we are drawn to a new level of consciousness. That is the source of new optic and renewal of purpose. The centring prayer which the desert fathers used, 'God, have mercy on me' is a prayer which would help some initially to deepen the interior silence.
The work place is a place of expected and unexpected events. Those who practice, about three occasions of stillness in body and interior silence, shared with me that they go back home 'leaving the workplace events behind, while returning home'. The way of living by ongoing strains within us, gets replaced by in between sacred inner encounter experiences with the God of our lives, in the ambience of the interior silence!
While the centenary building was built for Mother and Child Health in 1998 at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, the Developmental Paediatrics Unit was allotted a portion of the first floor for its services. In the design of the place, I proposed a quiet room for staff to return to be quiet in between their work.
I knew from my experience of 15 years of engaging with children with neuro-developmental needs and their families, the staff would need times for personal debriefing and inner re-orientation and re-composure, after having been present in situations of grief and distress. The engineer in charge said that he had no brief to set apart such a place in the design of the floor. It was while speaking to the director, Dr Joyce Ponniah, she felt the concern I raised and allowed a Quiet Room to be created in the corner of the floor space. To me, the Quiet Room was a symbol of recognising the needs of professionals, to have a private space to return to, to experience quietness and silence. During my time in the department, I noticed how the staff took short quiet times during the in between times for experiencing personal wellness.
In the practice of Ignition spirituality, the hermit bell would ring at specified times of the day as a call to take a break for stillness and silence. It is a practice in some monasteries and this has been borrowed by the industrial firms to remind the staff of the time to experience a break.
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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