"If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation."
--Chuang Tzu

The kind of calm that accompanies a clear mind is as pure and beautiful as the crystalline snow that falls outside as I compose this first post. It is the calm of emptiness of self, when all that you are vanishes and you become one with everything. This is a deeply spiritual experience; this picture was taken at a moment when I knew such calm.
Of course, we do not live our daily lives in a perpetual state of tranquility. The following paragraphs are from a previous entry I made into a different web journal. It is from these thoughts that I derived the concept for this blog.

“As this modern world zips by--confronting us with deadlines, pressing us on tightly packed roadways where we all rush to get to our oh-so-important destinations--I am hit by a sudden longing, and a deep pang of regret. Swept up by the tumultuous urgency of now, I feared for a moment that I was losing a part of myself. I was forgetting the song of Gaia.

So many ancient cultures have a respect for the natural world that is so profound; its ultimate manifestation is a sacred reverence for life. We are bundled in technology and hidden away from nature, and it has led to the most uncomfortable disconnect that I have ever known. I spent the entire summer in a kind of daze, merely going from my paying job to my internship to my volunteer work without honing in on the cues that my spirit was giving me. I am fortunate; I was nearly broken.

The song of Gaia is inside all of us, but we have forgotten how to follow the tune. The rhythms of life--the cycle of birth, growth, death, and renewal--are not the mad dash to the finish line that so many of us consider the norm. I have learned that I must slow down to find the beat again. From there, the melody will follow.”

Through these entries, I hope to share those things which bring me moments of stillness in a turbulent life. It is the chaos around the calm that makes us cherish such glimpses of deep connected peace. May these islands of tranquility bring you the same level of joy they have brought to me.

--Gaia_song