Settle Inn

This week, I moved from Maryland to North Carolina and the question I have been asked the most is, “How are you settling in?” How AM I settling in? It’s an interesting question which became a contemplation of the word, “settle.” On one hand I am not settled as I am house sitting for someone for a few weeks. And, yet….I am settled. Deeply and quietly settled within myself. This isn’t new and has been coming on for a long time. To settle can have different meanings, one of which is; to come to rest. It is this meaning I am most interested in. 

I have come to rest. I rest in my heart. In peace.  I have come to the Settle Inn -in my Heart.

It is a quiet and inviting space in which I feel and I am aware of the mindfulness of my breath. Of a sigh that releases. Of a quiet that is the ground of my life. It is not boring and it is not lonely, although I am alone.

I have come to rest. It has been happening for some time; over years of practice, contemplation and of teaching. Yes, teaching and facilitating groups and retreats, individual sessions, talks; all of these opportunities have helped me stay focused on what is important and on the goal. To find peace. To rest in peace. This is not a death. This is Life. To you who read this and who join these groups, how can I thank you? Let me share then, this contemplation with you.

Settling I imagine to be that slow drifting down of silt to the bottom of the pond upon which the lotus sits. And opens, You have imagined this for yourself so many times. We have imagined this together.

We have contemplated this stillness. This peace. So why do we resist rest?  Why have we allowed ourselves the deluded idea that rest is a collapse on a couch after the blur of busyness we believe we cannot control? Why would we settle for such a state of exhaustion?

Instead today, may we find time to settle as in resting the mind and taking conscious deeper breaths that we be restored, renewed and refreshed. Just imagining this together, we create an atmosphere of restfulness and in this, we can abide. We can return to the Path of Remembrance.

Peace, be still. This leads to rest. This leads to settling. This leads to Remembrance.

It always comes back to this for me, to remembrance. As in, remembrance of our true nature and true self. To come to rest doesn’t have to mean collapse. It’s up to each of us to decide. Today let us just reintroduce a moment to reconsider and allow the possibility of taking a day or a few moments to rest. To be restored. To be refreshed. To sit with no agenda. To rest in peace as a way to come alive once again. 

Let us all settle in for a moment and in that ground, sit still, and remember Who we are and this great Company that we keep. Let’s settle for nothing less.