and in that stillness
there was a freedom I never felt before. - Sarah McLachlan

So, the messages that came through my Reiki Sensei this weekend were about sitting in the stillness. In fact, Dr. Usui was quite adamant about it. "Be Still!" he said through Regina. The guides and teachers also asked me "What's your hurry?" and admonished me to " .. slow down".

Grr. I don't really want to do that but I think I need to. I was drawn to a book that Regina had sitting out over the weekend. It's called Adventures in Meditation, Vol 1. by Carol E. Parrish-Harra, Ph.D. Dr. Parrish-Harra is the dean at the Sancta Sophia School of Wisdom and is a prolific writer and speaker. Anyway, in this book, I found a passage that spoke to me quite loudly:

"In these lessons, you are reminded to begin by just doing the work; as lessons proceed, you will be guided in how to improve techniques and move from level to level. The first step is always to begin. Refinement comes with established practice. [snip] Without practice, many additional ideas have no gift to offer."

Perhaps it is the stillness that calls me to look at spending time on a retreat or in a convent of some sort. In fact, the convent thing keeps getting stronger all the time. Not as a way of life, mind, but more as a place to visit and bathe in the sacred energy that surrounds such a place. I don't know. What I do know is that lessons I need to move to the next level await me in that silence.