Flows the Silence.

Continuing on my quiet time theme from yesterday, today I present two beautiful photos taken by my sister-in-law Martha Goodman. They are from the beach at my mother and father-in-law's home in Gloucester, Virginia, looking out at their pier. Visiting my in-laws is like visiting a beautiful bed and breakfast (well, except your whole in-law family is there, no offense). They do treat us so well, and the scenery is awesome. And this is good, because it's generally our only vacation time each year. We missed them this Christmas but will be there in the summer.

Speaking of Christmas, this past Solstice I attended a drumming ceremony with a group of my dearest friends, my W.E.T. Sisters (Women's Enrichment Time, story for another day). The drumming ceremony was at the Carondelet Center next to the College of St. Catherine's in St. Paul. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet invited actor, drummer and frequent ceremony leader Jaime Meyer to lead us in the ceremony. The ceremony itself was okay--Mr. Meyer tended to "lead" the drumming more than I like, and he was very dramatic so the whole thing didn't feel quite like a ritual as much as it felt like a stage performance.

That aside, along with getting to pound on a very nice bodhran (Celtic drum), I did get one very nice and important thing out of that evening. My reindeer rune stone. Jaime Meyer is very much into the reindeer, as a Celtic/Norse animal totem. You can read more about that on his blog, linked above. And according to him during his dreams, ceremonies and at other times the reindeer spoke to him and gave him a series of phrases. He took those phrases and in a ceremony with his young son he was able to make symbols to go with each one. These he painted onto stones and each of us at the cermony got to take one.

Now, you may think this very strange. As Jaime himself said, you can think of him as just a wierd actor with a vivid imagination, or you can choose to take for yourself a spiritual meaning from all this. And you know me, I like to find the spiritual meanings! So, the rune I picked out: "Flows the Silence from the Unknowns". Maybe just a coincidence, but I had literally just been saying to my friends during a break before we received our stones, that I was really feeling the need for more silence in my life. Less TV, less shopping malls, less of a lot of the things we get so much of in America. I said to them I needed Silence if I was ever going to write and meditate and do a lot of the things I need to do.

And then here came the basket with the stones. I tried hard to just reach in for one and not choose it but let it choose me. I picked it out. I looked at the symbol, then compared it to the symbols in the pamphlet and there it was.

Flows the Silence through the Unknowns

You can read what Jaime Meyer thinks my rune stone means on his blog. It's similar to what I think, and what I know is that my own thoughts were being validated by the Universe just then. Yes, you do need silence. Silence. Flows. Unknowns. It's okay. Take it. Turn the stuff off. Sit in the Silence. Let it flow like water through you, around you, on all sides of you and into you.

I don't believe in coincidences. When I was in Seminary a fellow Seminarian called them God-incidences. That sticks with me. It's all in how you choose to look at things. I am trying to heed the message!

Peace, Silence, and may Blessings Flow to You this day, Lisa