I went to a memorial service today in honor of a dear friend who had passed away last week. It was a celebration, actually, and as I sat there and listened to the stories told of his life I wondered what he was doing and what it was like where he was now on his continued journey in a different form.

He was a prayerful man, and in the service they shared this Irish Blessing and it was as if I could hear him imparting this message to each one of us with love.

Credits to Ellie112001 – An Irish Blessing – on YouTube
The rhythms of life are sure and true and there comes a time when our lives blend more with the spiritual than the physical and we find ourselves at a juncture to where we cross over. It’s a mystery – one that most fear.

It’s comforting to think that life doesn’t end when we die. It just picks up and continues in a different dimension invisible to our eyes still connecting us in some way. Just as Emily Dickinson said as quoted from Dr. Wayne Dyer in Wisdom Of The Ages:

THE SINGLE HOUNDThis quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies,
And lads and girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls.
This passive place a summer’s nimble mansion,
Where bloom and bees
Fulfill’d their oriental circuit,
Then ceased, like these.

Everything changes in the world of form and that includes us. Part of the suffering comes from wanting to hold onto what we have and the people we love but it’s not designed that way. So, in time we learn to let go and bless the moments, things and people that come in and out of our lives. We learn to be present.

So, for now, as I bid farewell to my dear friend likewise extending to him the Irish Blessing, I’m reminded of a passage written by Kent Nerburn in Simple Truths: Clear & Gentle Guidance on the Big Issues in Life (page 109):

“When we come to the end of our journey, and the issues that so concerned us recede from us like the day before the coming night, it will be these small touches – the child we have helped, the garden we have planted, the meal we have prepared when we were too weary to do so – that will become our legacy to the universe.”

“It is a small legacy, perhaps, but a legacy nonetheless. Somewhere, between a baby’s cry and the distant brightness of a star, the mystery was alive in us for a moment. It was our privilege to feel its presence, and to have the chance to pass it on.”

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(Photo by Microsoft Clipart) ~~ These are two very different subjects yet somewhat related in the sense of our needs and awareness.

I thought about this when I read a passage from Kent Nerburn’s book entitled Simple Truths (pg. 57) where he says:

“Solitude is a condition of peace that stands in direct opposition to loneliness. Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room and being aware of the space around you. It is a condition of separateness. Solitude is becoming one with the space around you. It is a condition of union.”

It’s true. You can be in a crowded room and feel isolated, cut off, alone. Yet, you can be miles from civilization on a mountain top with only the trees, sky and wind as your companions and feel as if you’re one with all of life.

Why is that? How can we have such contrasting states of being? It’s not just different people experiencing solitude or loneliness but this contrast can appear within us at different times of our lives. What are we focusing on that gives us such peace or turmoil?

When we feel the world is unfair and not providing what we want, we put ourselves in a state of isolation and loneliness. It is not that the world is necessarily being unfair but it is that our understanding is only centered on self and we get fearful or uncomfortable when it’s not going our way. We are focusing only on the external and if it satisfies our needs or not. We want people, things, to fulfill us and they can’t. They aren’t designed to fulfill that longing and desire deep within.

On the other hand, solitude is the surrendering of self allowing the fullness of life to flow and be experienced. It is in this state where we find peace and fulfillment unlike anything a temporary external form could provide. It is in this peaceful place of the ebb and flow of life where we operate in handling the noise and endless chatter.

You don’t have to go to a mountain top to find solitude. We take it with us where ever we go – it is within us. There will always be countless errands to run and endless labors of life long after we’re gone. Accept the rhythms of life and when you need to take the time breathe in and feel peace and solitude right there with you – never to leave – and you won’t feel lonely.

As Nerburn goes onto say:

“Though this may sound mystical and abstract, the universe has an eternal hum that runs beyond our individual birth and death. It is a hum that is hard to hear through the louder and closer noise of our daily lives. .. It makes us part of something larger. In solitude alone do we become part of this great eternal sound.”

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(Photos are from Microsoft Clipart) ~~ As I sit here in thought on what words to write I stop and listen. The night is winding down and the sounds of the house are beginning to quiet. The thoughts I have are of how my day went and of gratitude. Allow me to share a few of them with you in no particular order.

THANK YOU FOR…
1. the sounds of our grandfather clock
ticking the minutes and hours away so faithfully
2. the beauty of a spring snowfall – 10 inches by us – covering the trees and mountains and putting out the fires that were so devastating
3. listening to my 2-yr old grandson giggle and laugh on the phone tonight
4. family and loved ones to enjoy and love and grow old with
5. pets as companions feeling their warmth and acceptance without having to say a word
6. my little car and how it got me through the snow yesterday
7. my day job (which I really like) to meet the necessities life requires
8. the silence – peace – joy – happiness

9. to be alive – feel my heart beating and breathe in and out – one breath at a time
10. for my Guides giving me a nudge that I had dropped my driver’s license and to go back and look for it; it was there in the parking lot – I found it – thank you, thank you
11. being in love with my life-long partner of 41 years

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I’ve been thinking about this all day. It’s a question all of us ask at least once in our lifetime. I think I got a little closer to the answer from listening to a story Oprah told on her webcast last night with Eckhart Tolle.

She said she remembered being in Hawaii and going for a walk with a friend late in the day. They walked to a top of the mountain and the clouds came down and were all around them. Up in the sky they could see the sliver of the moon but at ground level were the clouds. As she told it, there was such a presence of stillness. It was so still and quiet that she held her breath because the sound of breathing would break the silence.

I could picture that. It’s as if in this place all time and all thought stops. Tolle says it’s at this place where everything is connected and one and it’s the place of the essence of who I am…who you are.

I guess you could say there really are no words that could describe who we are without putting labels on it. The who I am is not of form. Form is for labels or for the roles we play and conditioned thoughts we think but the who we are is not touched by any of that.

Have you ever been that still or experienced that type of silence? What does it feel like to you? If you’re meditating and you’re in that stillness before you know it an hour has slipped by or if something breaks that silence you feel as if you’ve just awakened from a deep sleep.

Feeling our Beingness as we do in this space is what Tolle is talking about in this webcast and his book. If we can learn to go about our daily lives aware of our essence doing the things we need to do and going places we need to go, we would find solutions beyond our imagination and energies flowing into the work we do.

Because we would be putting our focus on our essence, who we are, the challenges we face would still be there but not attaching itself and creating drama and stress. When we’re aware of our essence in the midst of these problems and difficulties we detach and step back and observe them. The physical and mental part does what it needs to do to address the situation but it’s not running the show. Through the awareness is where the answers come and when we allow that to flow into the situation a divine energy joins with us with encouragement and love.

I have listened to words like this and read many books over the years teaching many things on this topic and told myself I understood but I don’t think I really knew. I learned the spiritual concept of these words but am now beginning to know who I am. You start by discovering who you are NOT and in the midst of that the real you appears. It’s not something you can express with thoughts or words – it’s the stillness, the silence and essence of our existence.

“The gift you offer another person is just your being.” — Ram Dass

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