Life Could Be So Simple

I had a mind-blowing experience.

Wait for it…

I sat in silence

For an hour

Drinking Tea

At a Chinese Tea Ceremony in Tuscany!

We sat in silence and sipped tea as the sun rose, and a mist in the distance rested over a valley, as the birds circled the fields and the wild boars in the distance make whatever noise boars do…a loud yell.

Surrounded by hills, trees and land. Our Tea-Master focused on making the tea and facilitated the silence.

There were nearly 40 people who had gathered from all over the world, and all had a similar experience… There were so many feelings of gratitude and appreciation… There were so many tears… there was a feeling of connection with ourselves and our surroundings...in silence.

Afterwards, everyone shared having had the feeling, that everything is connected. We all marveled at how we create separation; from each other- human from human, human from animal, human from land, work from life…

Modern life doesn’t put emphasis on feeling with nature, connecting with our surroundings.

We compartmentalize everything in our lives and our surroundings. We create polarization, Trump vs Clinton, Western vs. Eastern medicine, Good vs. Evil, Science vs. Art. We create ‘either’, ‘or’ and ‘but’….instead of ‘and’.

When we sit in silence, we realize the connection with our breath; our breath with our body, our breath with our mind (without having to analyse), our breath with our spirit (without knowing what that is perhaps), our breath with our surroundings.

I find it challenging to make time to sit in silence. I generally feel like I should be using my time productively.

The quality of our life and our health and well-being is the quality of the connection with ourselves and with others and with nature around us. What many of us do is busy ourselves; overworking, shopping, watching television, consuming fast food, alcohol, drugs, sugar…ingesting, ‘doing’ mindlessly, numbing ourselves away from a connection to what is important. We do much of this unconsciously.

When is the last time you offered yourself some taste of peace from within yourself and with the beautiful world we live in?

Consider this

Many people…

…never even once in their lives consider there may have been other things they might have done rather than watch TV nearly every night after work

…never consider that they don’t actually have to watch/ listen to/ read the news (most of which is bad news)

…never consider that they don’t have to have children to be complete

…never consider that there might be others ways of living and behaving other than what comes naturally

…never consider that we don’t have to constantly consume just because we are privileged enough to have it all on offer.

Many people…

…don’t stop to consider an experience from somebody else’s perspective

…don’t realize that much of our meat is being contaminated with steroids, our vegetables with chemicals; that the food we eat, is not what our parents grew up on.

…don’t realize how we are surrounded by brands, who are telling us that if we want to be happier we just need another car, another lipstick, another handbag.