Taking A Tumble

I have lived in this home for 4 years now. It is a duplex. The bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs. For 4 years I have gone up and down these creaking wooden stairs. Sometimes I have the energy to run up and down the stairs...and sometimes I take my time going up and down the stairs. When it is slow going it is usually because I am stiff from an exercise routine! I have never stumbled on these stairs...until a few days ago! Why? Thanks to Load shedding (for those who do not know what load shedding is it is when our power/electricity supplier takes action to reduce electricity supply to avoid excessive load on the generating plant. South Africa is running out of electricity!) in this crime infested, disintegrating country of ours! I needed to go down to the kitchen and thought it would be ok not to take the emergency light with me. I have gone down those stairs often enough in the dark. So I slowly made my way down in the dark. Well, this time did not go too well. I misjudged my step at the last 3 stairs. Next thing I knew I was in the air and came crashing down onto the stairs! You know when you see a cartoon character take a fall and it shows those stars above its head? Well, I seriously saw stars!! I thought I was going to pass out from the pain as I landed on my back and slid down the last 3 stairs. I quickly got up to prevent myself from passing out. That was quite a scare! Thank goodness I was already at the bottom of the stairs. It would have been disastrous if I had still been at the top! My back hurt like hell but I could feel nothing was broken. My left elbow was throbbing from pain. I don't even remember if I hit my elbow into the wall or if it also connected with the edge of the stairs. I took some anti inflammatory pills and crawled back up the stairs and went to bed. The neighbour's were out, so if it had been serious, no one would have immediately known what had happened to me. My gosh! Next day I felt like a rugby player that has been tackled the entire game! My back had some bruising on the right side, my left buttock had a nice black welt across it and my elbow had an enormous bruise and some broken skin in the centre of it. Accidents happen very fast. I was lucky! I have heard and read of so many women that have fallen down the stairs and have died. There was even a woman in London (I think it was London. Not sure now) whose body was not discovered for 2 or 3 years!!! Today is the first day I feel no pain. Lesson learnt! From now on I make sure I have the emergency light on at the top of the stairs if I need to go downstairs during Load shedding! Today I can laugh about my fall 😂 but when it happened it was very scary.

Where Do Your Thoughts Go In The Stillness?

Things keep changing. The clock ticks, the day unfolds, trees grow, leaves turn brown, hair turns grey, children grow up and leave home. Attention drifts from this to that...the cookie is delicious but then it’s all gone, you’re mad about something for a while and then get over it, the mind races on and on and on. Many changes are certainly good. It’s lovely to watch grass and trees waving in the wind. On the other hand, many changes are uncomfortable, even awful. We lose those we love. Families drift apart, companies fail, dictators tighten their grip, nations go to war. Change itself is often stressful. When you are really open to the fact that each moment of now disappears in the instant it arises, it can feel rather alarming. Life and time sweep us along. As soon as something pleasant occurs in the mind’s flow we reach for it but whoosh it passes away right through our fingers.

Stillness is all around, a sense of the unchanging. Look for it, explore its effects on you, and sink into it. In the stillness, you can find a refuge, an island in the stream of changes, a place to sit for perspective about events, a respite from the race, quiet amidst the noise. There is that wonderful feeling when the house is quiet and you’re sitting in peace, the dishes are done and the neighbourhood kids and dogs are quiet, and you can really let go of the chatter in your mind. In your mind, there is always an underlying calm and well-being that contains emotional reactions, like a riverbed that is still even as the flood rushes over it. Wherever you find stillness, enjoy it and let it engulf you. It’s a relief from the noise, a source of clarity and peace. Give yourself the permission to be still. When your mind finally relaxes, inner stillness is where you land. From there, you can reset your life experience. The value of inner stillness, is nature's way of nudging you towards listening to your heart’s suggestions.

Inner stillness becomes like a personal elevator to your highest view and eliminates the weariness from climbing endless stairs in your mind.