Less talking, more being

For those of us interested and experienced in Thin Places – those places of wonder and disorder — this may be our moment. Our earned skills of waiting, watching, our attitudes of curiosity and patience may be sorely needed in this time of turmoil. We can help soothe and perhaps heal by modeling, broadening the menu of ways to be together, without fighting. A good winter project. Here are a few ways to try this re-balancing act.

Talk less. Feel like you are drowning in opinions, complaints, suggestions, arguments, to-do lists, comments, chatter? Maybe words are really bricks for building walls between people, and there’s more to life than logic, clarity and complete sentences.

Find quiet things to do. Choose people, places, activities that make you feel competent and playful, refreshed, that leave you with a feeling of wonder and calm. Start to pick and choose who you spend time with. Try less news, fewer podcasts. See what happens.

Find out how others have made it through similar times. Read some Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, William Butler Yeats, John Keats, Rumi, Mary Oliver, David Whyte.

Fix broken things. There are several of those Repair Cafes around here. It helps temper that first impulse towards “retail therapy” that our capitalistic culture so encourages. Look up that word kintsugi: How a repaired object has its own special presence, and integrity.

Care for places, animals, land. Do something that gets you in touch with longer, older, less visible natural rhythms and cycles of time than we are used to. Look at The Orange County Land Trust, Wild Woods Restoration Project in Blooming Grove or turn your yard into a pollinator patch. These will introduce you to the worlds of native seeds, butterflies, bees and much more.

Be with others. On the four Tuesdays in March, at the Library in Warwick, I’ll be meeting with probably a dozen people interested in “Creative Aging.” It’s about simple ways to find and express meaning in a changing world. There’s a bit of talk, but mostly the chance to make things from the tools and materials I bring along. Come, let’s meet. It’s free. Register at 845-986-1047.