The Rhythm of a Monday or simply finding Peace

◄ by Peri Chickering – Hancock, NH ►

Peri Chickering, along with a large group of women throughout the world, practices a Day of Silence on the last Sunday of every month. This month, it will be on June 30th. A week prior to that day Peri or Barbara Cecil, another participant, email their thoughts and experiences with silence to the group. Although the word Attunement is not used, you will undoubtedly recognize the tangible current of Attunement inherent in what Peri has written.

I awoke this morning with a deep sense of restlessness. For awhile I tried to simply ignore this or pretend it was not there.  But as I settled into my morning cup of tea and came to a place of ‘stop’, the deeper experience was very apparent.

The practice that I have, when I finally stop and let myself notice what is happening, is to ‘lean into the energy’ of it. In my heart there was distress…not of anything I could consciously name, simply the emotion of distress. I sometimes feel this on Monday mornings as many millions of people are returning to work after (potentially) having a weekend to more directly attend to their own selves & families. It seems to me that there is a ‘latent anxiety’ of going back to a week of long commutes, over-full schedules, multi-tasking on every front, and the frequent feeling of overwhelm. I can feel this acutely at times, so today I was wondering if it was just an extra hefty Monday.

I also have had this sensation in my heart when there has been some larger global crisis or suffering ~ like on the morning of September 11th when I woke up crying and in deep distress for no apparent reason.

Today I have no idea the outer ‘cause’ of this distress, I only know what to do when I feel it ~ and it goes something like this. I simply go into the feeling and place it in ‘arms of light, surrounded by love’. I let gentle tears flow if they are pushing and I ask for Peace to come ~ to me, to whomever is ‘calling’, to this world that seems in need of a much more Wholistic way of living. And I wait ~ I wait for my Heart to open to the gentleness of this flow of Peace. I wait for an experience of quietude to enter in. I wait until I am at Peace once more.

Today as I felt myself filled with a deep sense of quiet ~ a phrase from one of the songs that I sang in a concert recently in my small town here in New Hampshire came to consciousness. It was from a song about Paul Revere’s ride across the countryside to alert everyone that the British were coming.

“Sons & daughters of liberty, hear my call…hear my call..”

The call this morning was to a revolution of a different order…a return of this human family to a place of quiet, radiant peace. Where we know each other as part of one Whole ~ sons & daughters of a family that truly feels, sees and responds as One.

As the solstice Sun stands still this month, may we all take a moment to bring this Wholeness to our minds and hearts, and may the Silence of Sunday moments send an experience of quiet Peace into the body of humanity.