Silence

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

For the past six years, I have made an annual pilgrimage to undergo a silent retreat at a Benedictine Hermitage in Big Sur.

As soon as I step into my simple room that overlooks the Pacific Ocean, something in me grows quiet and whatever thought that is occupying my brain immediately fades away.

In the profound silence without any connection to the outside world, my attention is brought to a point.

For those first initial hours, I’m keenly aware of my desire to distract myself. But, after a while, this soon quiets down, and I catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the constant chatter in my mind.

I start to encounter myself.

On this particular trip, I was reflecting on finding meaning in the second half of life, and how each of us is constantly called towards our highest self by doing difficult things.

A way this is represented is in the idea of the search for the Holy Grail. In the medieval Grail legend, the knights, having seen the Grail, and intuiting that it symbolized their search for meaning, undertook the challenge to find it and began their descent into the forest.

Most importantly, the text tells us that each one chose a separate place of entry at the point darkest to them.

In essence, the story reminds us that your journey is yours alone—not someone else’s.

And furthermore, the key to finding meaning in one’s own life (or your own Holy Grail) is to fully accept the anxiety and ambiguity of the darkness that lies ahead in the forest in front of you. And to constantly choose the most difficult route.

Or, as the poet Rilke once said,

"This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings."

Is there a challenge in front of you this week that seems difficult? What would happen if you fully embraced and accepted this challenge? What would be possible?

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A PIECE OF ART

“The Journey” by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Grateful,

Michael