Silence.

What I’ve been seeking inside.

Silence within the spaces of sound and activity throughout the day. Silence for grounding, silence for witnessing, and silence for deepened connection.

Today I participated in a “souls walk” journey with Amy “Bear” Piper, an intuitive spiritual healer I’ve worked with before to help me access, understand, and work with my Higher Self in order to move forward on my spiritual journey. I came to her, feeling like I needed more direction and insight with regard the spiritual work I do and how I can more fully manifest this path in my life. We spoke at some length of the issues and opportunities I face in daily life and in my developing role as a teacher who guides others on their spiritual path, whether it is through Reiki or the spiritual coaching work I do.

As a closet academic, and as someone with a very structured corporate background, I have a tendency to want to explain concepts, approaches, and advise people using tangible knowledge for the work they’re doing. It surprised me, but also made perfect sense when Amy said I needed to build more silence into the work I was doing. I had an experience of silence being so profound and transcendent during my most recent Reiki class, both during the reiju (initiation) and several guided meditations I facilitated with my students.

During the guided meditation (“soul walk”) I did with Amy today, I explored my silent space, the place of deep listening, and one that contains both the unsettling qualities of a journey with a protective aura. Truly magical places have both dark and light aspects, representing the areas of the self we need to explore.

I knew that place instinctively, because it has come up numerous times for me over the years. It is a desert meadow, specifically the one I camped in at Guadalupe Mountains National Park over a decade ago. Any desert mountain range I’ve visited reverberates for me with that same energy (it’s where I always feel grounded and clear, completely in tune with the rhythms of the earth) but that place in particular is my soul spot. It is a stunning landscape, a peaceful and spacious setting at the base of Guadalupe Peak (the highest peak in Texas) but it was also a place that can be harsh and dangerous if it is not respected.

At the beginning of the meditation, Amy played a singing bowl that was attuned to the heart chakra, and I could feel warmth slowly radiating out of my heart center, and settling in the lower part of my back. I felt both awakened and comforted by this gentle energy. And, I don’t know if it was just me attaching to the word combination, or because there was a deeper message, but the Simon and Garfunkel song, “Sounds of Silence” (one of very few I used to be able to play on the guitar) drifted into my head.

After the meditation, we talked about how I could build more silence into my daily life, and take visits to my desert meadow. It didn’t have to be a specific meditation time; it could be a quiet moment at night before bed, during a short break during the day, or any time when I need to cultivate spaciousness and deepen my soul connection.

One day, the message I seek will be there, written by my Higher Self in the crumbling sandstone at the base of the mountain, the tall desert grass whispering its approval.

(Image credit: Michael Davis – with appreciation, since the one photo I have that perfectly captures this landscape is on a negative and needs to be printed out)