Sitting in Stillness

In our modern day world we have forgotten how to sit in absolute stillness, breath and meditate waiting for Spirit.  From our conception we are surrounded by a cacophony of noise.   We have music, television, car noise, crowds, all clamoring for our attention.  We’ve grown so used to this hectic pace and way of life that sitting still becomes not only very difficult but for some impossible and frightening. 

Our Elders before us in the Cherokee way knew not only how to sit still, they knew how to ground themselves into the Earth and wait quietly.  They knew how to take a deep breath and sit in the stillness and revel in the quiet calm they created.   This stillness created health in body, soul and spirit.  It was in this place of calm and solitude that they could regenerate, communicate with Spirit, and receive the wisdom they so needed for their lives.

Many Europeans who had a different mindset misunderstood this mindset of the Native American and mistook it for stoicism.  In fact it became a stereotype to see a Chief or a Native American leader portrayed on television with no more than a frown and a grunt.  What was not understood is that our people saw words as power, and as manifestation.  Feelings and thoughts were not to be shared lightly simply because the spoken word has power, and power brings manifestation.   It was not so much stoicism as it was wisdom.  

In this day and there are many different courses in breath or breathing.  Imagine, we have even forgotten how to breathe in the madcap insanity that we have created of our world.  There are courses in meditation because our minds have become so cluttered we cannot remember how to relax and let go.  We have strayed so far from stillness and mother earth that the abnormal seems normal.  We live in glass and concrete cities, and we breathe in polluted air.   We rush in and out of subways, cabs, buses, and planes harried and frazzled.  We do not put our feet in Mother Earth, or feel her grass beneath our feet any more.  We have disconnected ourselves spirit, soul, and body, and now there is a restoration and a new movement that is trying to reconnect us with ourselves and with the Earth who is our Mother.

 There is a call back to sitting in stillness, calmness and grounding back to Mother Earth.  What was once ridiculed has now been found to be not only wise but necessary for our health spiritually, physically, and mentally.    We must once again reacquaint ourselves with stillness and calm.  We must not allow the distractions of our present day to keep us from learning this.  It’s time to remember the simple things such as breathing, or feeling the grass beneath our feet.  It’s time to plant, to sow, to remember the earth is our treasure, our sustenance and our Mother.  It’s time to learn to control our tongues and remember the sanctity of words and the power of them.  We need to learn respect for ourselves once more and the wisdom of sitting in stillness.  More importantly we need to be unafraid of facing ourselves in this new stillness.  Spirit wants to do a new work but as long as we deafen ourselves with mental spiritual or physical noise we will not move forward in this new beginning.