A Pause for Beauty:
An artist’s journal.
Before action, thought.
Unique and beautiful work
evolves out of the still point.
If we cannot wait,
we cannot know
the right time to move.
If we cannot be still,
our actions will have
gathered no power.
- Friends of Silence
The Second Law of living life on your own terms: The source of your power is your still point. Your power comes from harmony with your inner world.
That relationship is nurtured in silence, in solitude, in reflection.
To paraphrase Joseph Campbell, when you enter the forest at its darkest point, where there is no path, where you must make your own path, which is what living life on your own terms means, much depends on knowing who you are and what you want out of life.
That self-knowledge requires reflection, quiet time, to nurture and build. Before expending energy, build energy. Spend time in contemplation, in a pre-verbal state of receiving, waiting for guidance.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance,
And there is only the dance.
- T.S. Eliot, from “Burnt Norton”, the first of the Four Quartets, as published in Eliot’s Collected Poems.
Everything unique and beautiful grows out of the still point. The still point is that place of quiet reflection, meditation or prayer. Time for nothing other than the flow of thoughts, time for rest and relaxation and meditation and contemplation.
Within us is the soul of the whole; the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is related.
When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through our will, it is virtue; when it flows through our affections, it is love.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The notes above are taken from the early work on an upcoming book, the working title of which is “The 45 Laws Of Living Life On Your Own Terms”.