stillness

Chapter two is all about silence.
I'm only part way through it, but it's hard to be still, to be truly silent. As the book says, our heads are full of noise.

So tonight, as it's the first day of spring and the clocks have gone forward, I stoked up our chiminea for the first time and sat out in the dark for a bit of still time.

There's a lot of light pollution round here, and it's a bit cloudy for star-gazing, but it was good to sit and listen - to distant buses pulling up and drawing away; twice, a train (even though the nearest line is a long way away i think); the crackle, spit and flutter of the fire; next door's bath filling and then emptying a short while later; the breeze rustling the edges of bin liners full of garden cuttings...

It's hard to be mentally still though - the thoughts keep springing up; everything from work, to family to the England football team and their latest failures... but i like what the abbot says in the book; you have to persevere; it's like pulling up weeds in a garden, you have to keep on top of it while the plants grow. So this has been a good beginning - me and some burning wood and the traffic noise...

Si