Silence

Sometimes I just wish I could be quiet. I get sick of hearing myself talk. I mean, I don't talk near as much as some people, but it just seems like to be silent for a whole day or maybe a whole week would be a sort of cleansing thing. The mystics and the monks must be onto something. I've heard it said that when a man speaks, he ceases to be at peace with his thoughts.

I get into these modes where it just seems there is nothing to say. Instead of trying to fill up the air with meaningless words, maybe I should just listen - to others, to God, and then not feel the need to respond verbally. The world would probably be a better place. I don't always have to say something.

The River

This one is for a good friend of mine. The song, "The River," by Anathallo is about a woman who gets swept away in a river and actually enjoys the experience moving toward her own end. It appears, after reading this description, that when you are aware of your own mortality and where you are headed, you are at peace and can focus on the moment (what else to do when it's your last one?).

My friend said about his brush with death that he felt something similar - it wasn't pain. He said when he became acutely aware of his imminent death, there was a certain peace that washed over him. Check it out:

Brevity

I've been thinking that life is short. Let's just say the earth is 4.6 billion years old. That means my years, if I live to be 100, will make up 0.00000217 percent of the years the earth has been in existence. I'm a flash in the pan. It's no wonder scholars used to set a skull on their workspace and artists used to illustrate them into their works. That's where we're all headed (my deepest apologies for the pathetic pun). One day you're here and moving. The next you're not.

So why not do something meaningful? I gotta tell ya, there's a lot that I do that is not very meaningful. Putting so much time and energy into how I appear to others just doesn't make a lot sense with the aforementioned perspective.