Be still
I realised today that I have trouble being still. I don’t mean literally being still – I can sit in an armchair for worryingly long periods of time just moving my hands while I kill my brain cells with Google and facebook. I mean that I cannot be mentally still. I’m not sure that I know how to really relax. I always feel as though I need to be doing something, preparing for something or thinking. I sometimes cannot sleep for thinking and it’s not always about anything useful. Tonight I went to the gym, swam until I was exhausted and then walked briskly up a couple of hills. When I got home I was tired and thought about going to bed at 8pm. Then I ate my dinner and now I’m awake and my brain is working again. Often I’m awake at 1am scrolling through the TV channels looking for something other than Quiz Call to watch. I go to bed because I think I ought to try and sleep rather than because I’m genuinely tired.
What I would like to be able to do is sit in a Zen state of relaxation and calm and empty my mind. Until my doctor gives me a shoebox full of Valium I will have to make do with regional delicacies.
February 20, 2010 at 02:01
Many years ago. (These days, all my stories begin with, “Many years ago”) Many years ago, I got into a habit of watching tv late at night in the days when it was still in Black and White. We are talking about the early Seventies here. There was a program that could not have cost more than five quid to make, in which three people sat around a coffee table with a lighted candle on it. One of these people was a monk.
The monk invited the viewer to focus on the lighted candle (this was pretty novel for the time) and contemplate the following words:
Be still, and know that I am God
February 21, 2010 at 13:12
And now they have that candle thing on Wii do they not?
February 25, 2010 at 20:47
They do indeed have it on Wii and a lot of moths get incinerated.