“We are practicing an altogether new state of mind, a weird between-state in the uncertain gap between the thing that is beginning to bore us and the thing that’s about to stimulate us.” Wow! What a line. It really captures our modern day experience perfectly. I loved this article and always get so much out of reading your Substack. Keep it up!
I’ve recently reduced my work hours to allow for a lot more flexibility, I’m blessed to be able to do this, and have really strived to find moments of silence and stillness in my day-to-day life. The great thing about it is once you start doing it, you realize how right it feels, feels like coming home. Making it a habit has really helped, because inevitably I will find myself returning to my normal frantic pattern and have to be my own gatekeeper.
As usual, a challenging and encouraging read. I started it while listening to Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 on the stereo -- a truly beautiful piece -- but chose to turn it off instead, given the subject. I'm very glad I did.
There is something ... magical, about sitting in silence. At least, as a Christian there is. Because in this silence, I feel the presence of the Creator, and see His smile.
Thank you for this reminder to embrace silence more regularly, Peco. I will definitely be getting out into the woods more often from now on. And leaving the stereo powered down more frequently as well.
I find myself attempting stillness in fits and starts... sometimes I get into a good routine of going to bed at a reasonable hour with my phone turned off and inaccessible, and then I backslide. Other times, I make time for contemplative prayer at home, then go months without it. I get into a rhythm of taking long walks around my neighborhood, then go without. I struggle to maintain consistency with anything, but I feel like I have a lot of tools in the toolbox. I wish I could do better at sticking to them!
Peco and Ruth, just wanted to mention that one of the things i appreciate most in your articles is your use of beautiful, intriguing images throughout. I often screenshoot them and even use some as my "wallpaper" for awhile. Also i very much value, in this speedy wacky world, your advocacy for quiet, calm, less tech and even stillness, prayer and meditation. And your promotion of vacations from our tech devices.
The rhythm of morning and evening prayers in Orthodoxy, with the (admittedly sporadic) practice of the Jesus prayer throughout the day have been very important practices that help to routinely help to draw me into quiet and stillness. It's ever a work in progress as I'm often like a duck, appearing calm and collected, but paddling madly under the surface.
Getting under the surface is the hard part -- that's my experience too. In some ways, I feel like one has to be patient with one's lack of progress, which (if we are able to be patient), is still progress despite the lack of progress. (If that makes sense.).
I've recently started "doing nothing" while I breastfeed. It's so tempting to use that time to read, scroll my phone (social media is already gone, id be on Substack at least), or otherwise distract myself. But it's truly a perfect time to be still, watch my thoughts, practice mantra, and just enjoy BEing.
Thank you. I think that you would enjoy a piece written in 1960 by A.W. Tozer "Let's Cultivate Simplicity and Solitude" on similar themes. He warns about distraction, loss of quiet and solitude and the dangers it poses to our souls as he saw it 64 years ago!!
Great article, thanks. Good points on meditation - it's hard to empty your mind deliberately, the trick is to find some activity that does that for you. For me, that can be drawing, some diy or prayer of some kind. Today I went to Mass and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament - I don't go every week but it was just what I needed. I left my work and life outside the door and spent an hour doing something completely different.
If I cannot make time to give your work the attention it so deserves, I set the post aside. The reward later is great. Your mellifluous style and earnest good intentions are gratifying and motivating.
The illustrations harmonize (iz'at possible in silence, I wonder)?
Sometimes Ruth (my wife) and I talk about readers' tolerances for article length (2500? 3000? 4000?), and I keep telling myself to write shorter and simpler (and I probably will), yet at the same time there's a virtue in stretching the mind…and of course we all have our own “voice” that pulls us into a certain range.
Ruth is one of my favorite people on this app! You two are absolutely a power couple. And I definitely don’t think your articles are too long. My mentality is that the importance and intrigue of the content justifies whichever length it requires to convey the thought.
If you look at my average article length, I think you’ll find them to be around 2,100 words on average. Most people acknowledge that they are long, but that doesn’t stop them from engaging with them. I think part of this app’s beauty is that the writer has the freedom to choose their own length. Thank you so much for your work :)
Thanks Peco for an interesting article, though i didn't get through it all yet (: Btw i vote for shorter articles - you will retain more readers that way. I have been reading the midwestern doc for a couple years, and though she gives out very useful info, without a text-to-speech program i would barely partake, and even with that her articles are just TOO LONG. The average web-surfer will give up, and i can't send her articles to friends or family for that reason, so though she may have a lot of subscribers, there would be a lot more readers without that hurdle of reams of pages. These days i just skim them at best.
When citing the Wellcome Trust's MYRIAD study which you say concludes that "mindfulness meditation failed to improve the mental health of children compared with a control group and that it might even have had a detrimental effect on those who were at risk of mental health problems", i think it is important to remember that "charitable trust's" connection with the pharmaceutical industry, specifically GSK and their forerunner Burroughs Wellcome, not to mention their current financial interests and connections. After all, big pharma has an incentive to promote drugs for children's mental health issues.
The explosion of the world population dovetails with the exponential increase of computing power. The question is: what happens when satellites and devices outnumber people?
Sorry, John, I meant to remove the long and heavily-linked reply below, but slipped and deleted this one too. Feel free to re-post. (I'm encouraging readers to stay on point with the focus of the piece.)
“We are practicing an altogether new state of mind, a weird between-state in the uncertain gap between the thing that is beginning to bore us and the thing that’s about to stimulate us.” Wow! What a line. It really captures our modern day experience perfectly. I loved this article and always get so much out of reading your Substack. Keep it up!
I’ve recently reduced my work hours to allow for a lot more flexibility, I’m blessed to be able to do this, and have really strived to find moments of silence and stillness in my day-to-day life. The great thing about it is once you start doing it, you realize how right it feels, feels like coming home. Making it a habit has really helped, because inevitably I will find myself returning to my normal frantic pattern and have to be my own gatekeeper.
"...and have to be my own gatekeeper."
I've been there (more than once)!
As usual, a challenging and encouraging read. I started it while listening to Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 on the stereo -- a truly beautiful piece -- but chose to turn it off instead, given the subject. I'm very glad I did.
There is something ... magical, about sitting in silence. At least, as a Christian there is. Because in this silence, I feel the presence of the Creator, and see His smile.
Thank you for this reminder to embrace silence more regularly, Peco. I will definitely be getting out into the woods more often from now on. And leaving the stereo powered down more frequently as well.
Thanks, Joel. We all the need the reminder, again and again!
I find myself attempting stillness in fits and starts... sometimes I get into a good routine of going to bed at a reasonable hour with my phone turned off and inaccessible, and then I backslide. Other times, I make time for contemplative prayer at home, then go months without it. I get into a rhythm of taking long walks around my neighborhood, then go without. I struggle to maintain consistency with anything, but I feel like I have a lot of tools in the toolbox. I wish I could do better at sticking to them!
Peco and Ruth, just wanted to mention that one of the things i appreciate most in your articles is your use of beautiful, intriguing images throughout. I often screenshoot them and even use some as my "wallpaper" for awhile. Also i very much value, in this speedy wacky world, your advocacy for quiet, calm, less tech and even stillness, prayer and meditation. And your promotion of vacations from our tech devices.
The rhythm of morning and evening prayers in Orthodoxy, with the (admittedly sporadic) practice of the Jesus prayer throughout the day have been very important practices that help to routinely help to draw me into quiet and stillness. It's ever a work in progress as I'm often like a duck, appearing calm and collected, but paddling madly under the surface.
Getting under the surface is the hard part -- that's my experience too. In some ways, I feel like one has to be patient with one's lack of progress, which (if we are able to be patient), is still progress despite the lack of progress. (If that makes sense.).
I've recently started "doing nothing" while I breastfeed. It's so tempting to use that time to read, scroll my phone (social media is already gone, id be on Substack at least), or otherwise distract myself. But it's truly a perfect time to be still, watch my thoughts, practice mantra, and just enjoy BEing.
Thanks, Becca! Sometimes the best times to practice are the implicit moments that we might not think of.
Thank you. I think that you would enjoy a piece written in 1960 by A.W. Tozer "Let's Cultivate Simplicity and Solitude" on similar themes. He warns about distraction, loss of quiet and solitude and the dangers it poses to our souls as he saw it 64 years ago!!
Thanks for that reference, I will have to look him up. It's amazing to me how many prescient writers there are on these themes.
Yes, it is. Another favorite book that foreshadows all of this for me is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Great article, thanks. Good points on meditation - it's hard to empty your mind deliberately, the trick is to find some activity that does that for you. For me, that can be drawing, some diy or prayer of some kind. Today I went to Mass and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament - I don't go every week but it was just what I needed. I left my work and life outside the door and spent an hour doing something completely different.
Yes, Mass and other liturgical experiences can be powerfully "quiet", despite the words and song.
I go to Latin Mass and this was a low Mass so especially quiet. Balm to the soul.
Grace🕯️ and Peace📿 to you,
😌 recommend :
"Hesychasm" - Archimandrite Zacharias (St John the Baptist, Essex England) 📘 ✍🏼 🇨🇾 ☦️ 🇬🇧 🔥
"Be still and know......" ♥️🕊️
Thank you, Robert!
Thx Peco.
Tl;dr is NOT possible from y'all (u&the Mrs).
If I cannot make time to give your work the attention it so deserves, I set the post aside. The reward later is great. Your mellifluous style and earnest good intentions are gratifying and motivating.
The illustrations harmonize (iz'at possible in silence, I wonder)?
Amazing. And also gives me so much hope for long form discourse to make a comeback. Thanks so much for your work!
Thanks Griffin. I didn't realize it was "long form" but you're right I guess -- and I share your hope!
I just meant “long” in terms of the average length of most web articles these days. It was a genuinely lovely read.
Sometimes Ruth (my wife) and I talk about readers' tolerances for article length (2500? 3000? 4000?), and I keep telling myself to write shorter and simpler (and I probably will), yet at the same time there's a virtue in stretching the mind…and of course we all have our own “voice” that pulls us into a certain range.
Thanks for your kind words. Always encouraging!
Ruth is one of my favorite people on this app! You two are absolutely a power couple. And I definitely don’t think your articles are too long. My mentality is that the importance and intrigue of the content justifies whichever length it requires to convey the thought.
If you look at my average article length, I think you’ll find them to be around 2,100 words on average. Most people acknowledge that they are long, but that doesn’t stop them from engaging with them. I think part of this app’s beauty is that the writer has the freedom to choose their own length. Thank you so much for your work :)
Thanks Peco for an interesting article, though i didn't get through it all yet (: Btw i vote for shorter articles - you will retain more readers that way. I have been reading the midwestern doc for a couple years, and though she gives out very useful info, without a text-to-speech program i would barely partake, and even with that her articles are just TOO LONG. The average web-surfer will give up, and i can't send her articles to friends or family for that reason, so though she may have a lot of subscribers, there would be a lot more readers without that hurdle of reams of pages. These days i just skim them at best.
I think humans need CPR. As communal bodies and souls we thrive in a daily balance of contribution-play-and rest.
Yes, agreed -- I think we need a rhythm in life.
When citing the Wellcome Trust's MYRIAD study which you say concludes that "mindfulness meditation failed to improve the mental health of children compared with a control group and that it might even have had a detrimental effect on those who were at risk of mental health problems", i think it is important to remember that "charitable trust's" connection with the pharmaceutical industry, specifically GSK and their forerunner Burroughs Wellcome, not to mention their current financial interests and connections. After all, big pharma has an incentive to promote drugs for children's mental health issues.
The explosion of the world population dovetails with the exponential increase of computing power. The question is: what happens when satellites and devices outnumber people?
I'm not sure, but that's a very interesting question!
Sorry, John, I meant to remove the long and heavily-linked reply below, but slipped and deleted this one too. Feel free to re-post. (I'm encouraging readers to stay on point with the focus of the piece.)