At the end of all

Stillness is vital to the world of the soul. If as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion. The fragments of your life will have time to unify, and the places where your soul-shelter is wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal. You will be able to return to yourself. In this stillness, you will engage your soul. Many people miss out on themselves completely as they journey through life. They know others, they know places, they know skills, they know their work, but tragically, they do not know themselves at all. Aging can be a lovely time of ripening when you actually meet yourself, indeed maybe for the first time. There are beautiful lines from T. S. Eliot that say:

'And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.'

John O'Donohue

Excerpt from ANAM CARA

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The clinical notes are done

The car has found its way home

The TV is off

Horses are fed

And dog and cats sprawl on the porch in the heat of

a hot august night

slowly the mind slows

and the body settles

quietly soul does inventory

thoughts wander randomly

and carelessly through the mind

thoughts about things finished

and unfinished

about love experienced and yearned for

good memories flourish

but memories of past hurts as well

and from time to time

feelings of failure

or resentment surface

but in the silence I watch those thoughts drift by

like boats on a river

and quietly just work to let them go

drifting away

meanwhile the mountain looms into the sky

a fawn awkwardly stumble after its mother

and a hawk screams its protest

at my foolishness

and I suspect

yours too

and I return

to stillness