Shutting Out the World
A Little While Every Day
Dear friend,
The buzzing in my ears is noticeable this morning. It’s probably there all of the time but I don’t notice it. The body is sending signals. They manifest as sights and sounds and physical sensations, pleasant at one end of the spectrum and, for anyone who’s lost their health, either mental or physical, you’ll know how bad it can get at the other end.
Apart from the internal buzzing the morning is characteristically still. The neighbours are asleep at this hour. We’re not on a main road so there’s very little traffic. I can feel Chiara padding around in the bedroom above where I’m sitting and the vibrations of the rollers running in the tracks of our wardrobe doors.
I hear her teaspoon clink against the edge of her cup, I know which cup, her favourite for the morning and I can see it, the spoon too.
It’s all vibration that my brain is translating into my very own personal universe.
In a city like this you pass thousands of people in a day, momentarily visiting each other’s worlds - only some stand out.
Loved ones.
Unloved ones too.
The poor unfortunates who are harming themselves by harming others, delusional in their pursuit of power and status, quick wins and material gains. From the saintly to the inconsiderate to the willingly vicious, each is creating their own heaven or hell.
Then there’s the stuff we all have to face. The losses that are part of the lives we live on the surface of the blue planet.
Here where nothing lasts.
However you look at it kindness and forgiveness are anyone’s best bet for a life that stands any chance of being gentle and peaceful.
Only the false self wants anything else.
Chasing after the worthless.
Passing over what we really want, which is to love and be loved and to feel safe and to belong.
To explore.
Learning and growing into who we are.
It helps to shut out the world for a time each day.
It doesn’t disappear.
You begin to notice that it’s not out there.
It’s in here.
The cooing of the pigeons can become a way inside.
The taste of coffee can do it too.
You can sit with eyes closed and listen without judging.
To the rushing of the breath.
Like the ocean.
You don’t need a rocket ship to leave the planet.
You can float in space, watching this blue water world cloaked in countless points of light, the infinite energy of the stars.
Your mind can take you there.
It’s really no more effort than to put on your shoes and drive or walk to the shops.
To hold down a job.
To be someone.
St Paul in Corinthians says “I die daily.”
Shutting out the world in meditation.
Slowing down the breath.
Becoming still.
There will be days where the world pulls so hard and fast on you that there seems to be no time for it.
You’ll forget.
That’s okay.
You’ll remember and you come back to it.
This moment.
Where your entire life plays out.
Like a wave on the ocean surface.
Deeper still.
One life.
In and beyond it all.
Till tomorrow
Love
Mikey