Slownado Season

My little town dodged a great big bullet last week, while destruction reigned all around us. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Tornadoes are beautiful, deadly bastards. Iowans may be slightly in love with them, honestly. We don’t get scared, we get excited. Instead of running for shelter, we are outside trying to record it. Because they are like whirling angry sylphs, curling and flowing down from the clouds with incredible strength and grace and power – and then they explode everything in their path.

The clouds are heavy with drama, roiling and boiling in the sky, lit from within by lightning. The clouds turn an eldritch shade of green before a tornado hits, and the wind just . . . stops . . . until it starts up again, and holy crap run for it. The video camera, I mean, cuz this shit is awesome.

Summer is a treacherous time, despite the “lazy hazy” reputation. We’re about a week away from the turning point, when the growing season winds down and the harvest season kicks in. New kinds of busy. But if we get still and quiet for a minute, we can feel Mother Gaia starting to ease up and slow down. Life holds its breath for a few precious moments, allowing fruits to ripen and get ready for the release. I’m about a week away from an all-out tomato emergency. Dear lord. So. Many. Tomatoes.

So how can we take advantage of this breath-holding moment of stillness?

Sometimes we have to enforce and demand that we get some silence. I once burst into tears and begged someone who was talking me half to death to for the love of God stop talking. He didn’t take it very well. We aren’t friends anymore. That’s okay. I had to stop the chatter and end the avalanche, and I did it. It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. No regrets.

Hopefully you won’t have to go to such extremes to get a little silence, a little stillness. Make the time. Even if it is two minutes in your car before you go home after work, or a five-minute non-smoking break outside to just walk and listen. No phone, do not take your phone with you. Just go outside and slowly walk, and deeply listen. Put it on your calendar, and be ruthless about getting it. Don’t take phone calls, don’t answer emails, don’t check in with your kids or your partner or whoever – this is seriously important time.

Silence, as I may have mentioned before, is where God/Source/Creator speaks. When we come into stillness and relax, opening our ears and closing our mouths, we can commune with the Mystery that leads us to Truth. We can set foot on the Path that can take us to true peace and wisdom.

Silence is much, much more than golden. It is holy. It makes us whole. 

Inhale silence, and exhale chatter. Inhale stillness, and exhale restlessness. Inhale peace, and exhale regret. Inhale self, and exhale everything that is not-self. Feel your energy body start to sizzle, become aware of how alive you are. Focus on how that makes you feel and forget everything else for a while. Find a spot where you can safely close your eyes, and let your ears take over all sensory input. Listen to your breathing. See if you can hear your heartbeat, or the blood rushing in your ears. Just for a few minutes, be the sound.

Then wrap your stillness around you like angel wings, and step back into your life, alive, energized and fully present. Take that, forces of chaos. You got nothin’. When we are this aware of who we really are, things change for the better and fast. Buckle up.

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