Dharma Traveler

"Pay more attention to the silence than to the sounds.  Paying attention to outer silence creates inner silence: the mind becomes still... Every sound is born out of silence, dies back into silence, and during its life span is surrounded by silence.  Silence enables the sound to be.  It is an intrinsic but unmanifested part of every sound, every musical note, every song, every word.  The  Unmanifested is present in this world as silence.  This is why it has been said that nothing in this world is so like God as silence.  All you have to do it pay attention to it." -Eckhart Tolle Silence. As the harmonium fades to a whisper and voices cease to be, all I hear in this great hall is... Nothing.  A profound silence echoes so loudly in my soul that I finally understand the meaning of, "The silence is deafening."  No, it's not that there's an awkward pause in a conversation between acquaintances. Nor is it two lovers at a rift who don't kno

  Love. It was a sunny, warm, sea-salty air kinda day on the cool California coast in Montecito.  My sister and I tried yoga on surfboards and dips in the sea before setting off on a walk with Mom and Dad.  Here, you can walk along the seaside about an hour to Santa Barbara, where Dad was ready to grab some food.  It was a gorgeous walk in the golden air, hopping from rock to rock and dodging waves.  Along the way, we met a bird.  This little fella, about the size of a seagull, was painted grey and speckled black. He was on the shore, snuggled amidst some stones getting lightly tossed by waves, not moving much at all besides this.  My mom and Kensi were quick to act, finding the number of a local animal rescue group.  The Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network told us we could bring the bird in, thirty minutes by car in the opposite direction we had been walking in. By this time, Dad had walked on and was almost to Santa Barbara, eye on the prize of dinner.  But Kensi was insi