"As deep as I ever went into the forest I came upon an old stone bench, very, very old, and around it a clearing, and beyond that trees taller and older than I had ever seen. Such silence! It really wasn’t so far from a town, but it seemed all the clocks in the world had stopped counting. So it was hard to suppose the usual rules applied. Sometimes there’s only a hint, a possibility. What’s magical, sometimes, has deeper roots than reason. I hope everyone knows that. I sat on the bench, waiting for something. An angel, perhaps. Or dancers with the legs of goats. No, I didn’t see either. But only, I think, because I didn’t stay long enough.”
— Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver
I wonder if the most important thing we can teach children is to cultivate moments of silence and solitude because it is in silence where anything is possible. The past is the past, the future unknown. Silence is a special place of belonging. A place where poets, artists, and thinkers rest in imagination.
Contentment in silence and solitude could be the most important life lesson.
Be well,
Kathy