A few weeks now since we were on the Knoydart experience but I am happy to say that the effect is still with me and I am enjoying my periods of silence.
The solo was and is still a very powerful motivator for change in a individual. Came across interesting quote this week ;
“Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind and spirit. The man who preserves his selfhood is ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence … What are the fruits of silence? They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character.”
~Ohiyesa, Santee Sioux~
So after the facts of the first residential, where have I got to? And why am I finding it so much easier to describe what I have been doing and seeing and hearing and tasting and smelling than it is to get the right words to describe what’s going on in my head and my heart without sounding detached or, worse, demented! Can I use words like blessed and soul and love and kindness and warmth and care and compassion and be credible in my own mind, far less the minds of the people who see the different fragments of me.
Having spent a lot of time on the coast, on the final day we walked into the valley, into the hills, and paused again for thought. The group got into talking about education and values and why we seem to have got so far into tasks and milestones and measures at the expense of the purposes which brought us all there in the first place. So starting to link it back into the rest of our lives.
So beautiful a place to leave, it was always going to be hard to leave, but last morning sunrise from the boat made me cry and laugh – which surprised me – and made me think about what that was about.
But I am sitting here, writing this at home, actually struggling to re-engage which is not like me. Putting off getting back in the loop I suppose – but part of the purpose of this must be to connect the being with the doing; to use the privilege of the experience I have had over the last few days with the day-to-day reality of how we live and work.
I think that is probably the connection – or the re-connection – which I said earlier in the week I needed. So what next? Stick with the programme, I think is all I can do, and keep trying to capture how my thinking (feeling?) develops in words…or pictures?
Look out for things which I want to change, or have changed without noticing maybe? More being and less doing – definitely!
