NAN SANDERS POKERWINSKI
  • Home
  • Media
  • About
  • Contact
  • Atrocity (Novel)
  • MANGO RASH (Memoir)
  • Photography
  • Collages
  • Buy Books
  • Blog
  • EVENTS
  • Journalism

HeartWood
A blog about cultivating
creativity, connection and contentment
wherever you are

Last Wednesday Wisdom for May 2017

5/31/2017

7 Comments

 
On the last Wednesday of every month, I serve up a potpourri of advice, inspiration and other tidbits I've come across in recent weeks. In the spirit of an earlier post on a silent hike (and having been forced into near silence by losing my voice over the weekend), this month's offerings are on the subject of silence. It's okay to read them aloud, though.
Picture
Silence gives us the impetus for awareness and creativity. Sometimes our minds need to be emptied before our spirits can be filled.
​-- Ardath Rodale
Picture
Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
-- Marcel Marceau
Picture
Silence is not a thing we make; it is something into which we enter. It is always there . . . All we can make is noise.
-- Mother Maribel of Wantage
Picture
Silence is more musical than any song.
-- Christina Rossetti

Picture
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.
​-- George Eliot
Picture
In wilderness people can find the silence and the solitude and the noncivilized surroundings that can connect them once again to their evolutionary heritage, and through an experience of the eternal mystery, can give them a sense of the sacredness of all creation.
-- Sigurd Olson, author and environmentalist
Picture
Try to pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds . . . Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence . . . It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, and every word.
​-- Eckhart Tolle, author and spiritual teacher
Picture
Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary.
-- Peter Minard, ​Benedictine monk
Picture
There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough to pay attention to the story.
-- Linda Hogan, poet, author and environmentalist
Picture
Silence is our deepest nature, our home, our common ground, our peace.  Silence reveals.  Silence heals.
-- Gunilla Norris, poet and author

Picture
Seek silence.
Gladden in silence.
Adore silence.

As one progresses on the path, one seeks silence more and more. 
It will be a great comfort, a tremendous source of solace and peace.

Once you find deep solitude and calm, there will be a great gladness in your heart. 
Here finally is the place where you need neither defense nor offense -- the place where you can truly be open. 
There will be bliss, wonder, the awe of attaining something pure and sacred.

After that, you will feel adoration of silence. 
This is the peace that seems to elude so many. 
This is the beauty of Tao.
-- Deng Ming-Dao, author and artist, 
365 Tao: Daily Meditations
7 Comments
laura
5/31/2017 08:10:41 am

I love this reminder. IMHO silence is the best fuel for a creative slump, too. When I stop force-feeding sound into my ears - podcasts, radio, audiobooks - and just walk around in silence, my mind unclenches, and the ideas start to bloom again.

Reply
Nan
5/31/2017 09:49:35 am

Amazing, isn't it -- the power of something so simple.

Reply
Emily Everett
5/31/2017 02:53:10 pm

Perfect reading for these times when the noise is everywhere. I need to be that reasonable being more often.

Reply
Nan
6/1/2017 06:07:43 am

Come back to Newaygo whenever you need a quiet fix.

Reply
Sally C Kane
6/1/2017 10:07:27 am

I related to this. Especially that last poem, "...the place where you need neither defense nor offense--the place where you can be truly open."
At this place in my life world, I crave silence. My husband and I did a road trip from MI to NM in March with very little radio or music. That amazed me.
Silence surely heals.

Reply
sd link
6/6/2017 02:03:09 pm

Love the creativity! nice post

Reply
Nan
6/7/2017 08:07:35 am

Thank you, and thanks for visiting.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Written from the heart,
    from the heart of the woods
    Read the introduction to HeartWood here.

    Subscribe to HeartWood

    Available now!

    Picture
    Check with your favorite bookseller or order from the BUY BOOKS page on this website.
    Get updates on Mango Rash
    BUY MANGO RASH

    Author

    Nan Sanders Pokerwinski, a former journalist, writes memoir and personal essays, makes collages and likes to play outside. She lives in West Michigan with her husband, Ray.

    Archives

    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    April 2022
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All
    52 Frames
    Art
    Better Living
    Books
    Community
    Creativity
    Events
    Explorations
    Food
    Gardens
    Guest Posts
    Health
    Inspiration
    Last Wednesday Wisdom
    Local Artists
    Mecosta County
    Montcalm County
    Music
    Muskegon County
    Nature
    Newaygo County
    Oceana County
    People
    Photography
    Pure Michigan
    Reflection
    Return To Paradise
    Samoa
    Writing

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Media
  • About
  • Contact
  • Atrocity (Novel)
  • MANGO RASH (Memoir)
  • Photography
  • Collages
  • Buy Books
  • Blog
  • EVENTS
  • Journalism