Saturday 27 March 2010

zen-like patience and a few haikus

I sat for ages on my garden seat this morning, notebook in hand, ready to write down a flow of inspirational words of inner wisdom ... It isn’t often that I consciously make time to do this; more often than not it’s a case of a few snatched moments here and there, where I hurriedly scribble down the odd flash of inspiration that suddenly strikes me at unexpected moments ...

I sat and waited ... and waited ... and waited ... but my mind was blank – no words were springing to mind. This was a bit disappointing, as I’d really wanted to let the words flow out of my heart and soul, so I felt a bit miffed that I just couldn’t connect with my reserves of inner guidance...

After a while, I smiled at myself. It dawned on me that this sort of thing can’t be forced... the beauty of my inner voice is that it speaks to me when it is ready, rather than because I’ve scheduled a specific time to connect with it ... Usually the words come to me when I least expect to hear them, so that fact that I’d tried to arrange a ‘meeting’ on my terms meant that it was never going to be very productive.

My inner voice can’t be forced to talk when I decide I want to hear it – it doesn’t work like that. It decides to speak when I don’t really expect it to – although the more I listen, the more I get ‘tuned in’ to when it’s likely to make itself heard – whether it’s while I’m washing dishes at the kitchen sink, sorting out the washing, or standing in a queue at the supermarket. That’s why I’ve started carrying a pen and paper with me wherever I go...

So, instead of connecting with my innermost thoughts and feelings, I sat zen-like and patient and emptied my mind and simply absorbed what was going on around me... After a while, I started writing, but rather than it being about what my inner voice was telling me, it was about what I was observing around me, in nature... in the form of zen-like haikus... I love haikus – they capture the moment so succinctly. I hope that one day I will have a book of my haikus published, but in the meantime, here are some I‘ve written today, and earlier in the week...

Daffodils nodding
A dancing yellow river
Swaying in the wind

An apricot glow
Reaches out across the sky
A new day begins

Ripples on the pond
Sparkle just for a moment
In the morning sun

Crying in alarm
The blackbird warns of danger
And then all is calm

A visiting crow
Waddles down the garden path
he's making me laugh


Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.
Henry Winkler

Have you taken some time out this week to sit peacefully and empty your mind, and / or connect with your inner voice?

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