Turn down the volume on life…...

Life has required a lot of smudging lately. Much more than what is our usual. It's a ritual that we share here at home as a part of our spiritual practice and it brings us balance and clarity and grounds us in our life. But lately it seems that we have been drawn to the meditation room more frequently to smudge and find that balance. Things just seem 'off' in a bigger way than normal causing us to look deeper for that balance. I know we have just finished a time of retrograde and this is often an unsettled and interesting time to work through. But having said that, it still seems that there is an energy present that is not settled. And I have felt it for a while now.

Weeks ago I kept hearing a phrase in my head that talked about life being too loud.  It seems as though there is a 'loudness' that prevails in so many ways from the macro to the micro and it is deafening us from what we really need to hear. And what we really need to hear should be soft and loving and not loud and harsh. It feels as though my mind and soul is assaulted with all of this loudness and it is so unsettling. 

Just watch the tv news or listen to the radio and you will hear it. Listen to conversations in line at your local grocery mart and you will hear it. It's at work in the lunchroom and its even in traffic when you head home from work. There is this 'loudness' everywhere. Everyone wants desperately to be heard. Everyone wants to be noticed. Everyone is desperate for acknowledgement. Yes, that's exactly it….. desperation. The world has become this desperate place that seems to exist in a chaotic fashion much of the time. And lately it just seems to be louder. Sigh……

It saddens me that we feel we need to live this way. I look around me at the world at large and am not convinced that this chosen path is working. There is strife everywhere. There is unrest everywhere. There is war that has gone on for far too long. We as a human race struggle and it seems to be getting louder. And as I said previously the microcosm is just a smaller version of the macrocosm. It's what we have been exposed to and let creep into our own lives. Once again I sigh……

So I strive to find and most importantly keep that balance and clarity. It is difficult though. It needs nurturing all the time. It needs a reminder often. So we smudge, we meditate, we takes walks in the forest and maybe sometimes when we need to we just close our eyes and travel in our minds to a peaceful place. Even just being 'present' allows us to better realize what might be going on around us and then not allowing ourselves to be drawn in. But if we continue to allow the loudness to prevail then we will become deaf to what real life should and was intended to be. Loving, peaceful and with less loudness. Let's try to live a softer life. Let's turn down the volume. We don't need to scream to be heard. We can speak softly and still share our message. 

Blessings to all,

Maggie