I don’t know
why, but kids love throwing stones in the water. They can do it for long stretches of time and
be totally amused and at peace. I enjoy
it too, especially tossing five or six in the air so they come down and create
a tinkling song: piddle-dee-dop.
I’ve always
loved stones and have often travelled home with a few in my suitcase – some as
rocks and some as polished jewelry such as ammonite from southern Alberta and
labradorite from Newfoundland. Perhaps it was all those trips to the Petroglyph
as a child and the family drives to abandoned rock mines in the Bancroft area that
opened me to their wonder.
I recently
bought a Celtic knot ring with a blue topaz stone in the centre and was
fascinated its healing qualities were associated with both peace and
communications. Peace and communications: how remarkable these
two energies are linked, but then of course with a quick curiosity, it seems
obvious. If people are not communicating there won’t be peace, and if people
are not at peace when they are communicating, something is likely to be missed.
Being at
peace, I find, is probably one of the hardest things to accomplish and
maintain. There are so many
distractions, needs and wants that captivate our minds leaving peace so easily forgotten. “I want peace, and oh, I also want the latest
smart gadget, and I want to get the laundry done and finish that email. Did you
see the latest flyer? Those sale prices end on Thursday.”
Someone gave
us a fridge magnet that reads: Peace. It
does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard
work. It means to be in the midst of
those things and still be calm in your heart. (Unknown) How do you get like that – calm in your
heart?
I probably
spent most of my life trying to figure that one out. Growing up, I felt there was something else
to living and being alive other than what I was seeing, so I studied mythology,
shamanism, sound therapy and literature to learn to read between the lines and
into the magic. And lo and behold, what
was there was peace – patiently waiting for me to slow down and climb
aboard.
There was no
title I had to earn, no PhD to obtain, no secret code to decipher; I just had
to slow down. I’m not talking about
sitting on the couch and doing nothing, I’m referring to the nervous
system. People can be sitting in a chair
but they talk so fast, you know everything inside them is churning like crazy.
When our nervous system gets overstimulated by stress or electronics we enter
an altered state – altered from peace – and it happens so quickly we’re not
even aware it’s occurring. We do know,
however, that it’s uncomfortable and we want to feel something different,
something less stressful. Often we don’t
even know that what we want is that feeling of peace, that grounded, natural
feeling of inner calm, so we search for comfort in destructive ways and often
end up feeling numb instead. Numb does
not equal peace.
I recently
learned a method to realign with calmness from a fellow named Joshua Bloom. He suggested you close your eyes and imagine
a feather floating down from the sky and softly drifting down your back until
it comes to rest at the base of your spine.
Keep your awareness there and exhale into it. Inhale into your belly and exhale out the
base of your spine.
I had a
difficult time meditating and clearing my mind but this kind of centring is more
natural and profound for me. After a few
minutes of exhaling, I’ve slowed my nervous system down and returned to a
peaceful flow, a stream of tenderness and magic.
Huh,
interesting.
Maybe that’s
why kids love throwing stones in the water: Nature takes them in hand and
invites them into that flow, that timeless space of bliss.
Piddle-dee-dop.
