I wrote a few poems on slow life, mindful encounters with the everyday, and touched on the emotional challenges of relationships and being with others socializing. Our world has reversed for some weeks now as social distancing became the new habitat for the human form in this pandemic.

We have an opportunity now to go deeper inside, to organise our lives and to accept this challenge of staying at home for a long time.

Surrealism

@Salvador Dali

Even though silence is important for our wellbeing, we naturally crave direct encounters with other human beings. For now, live internet Zooms, Face Time and other video chats can supplement hanging out with your family or friends, but do not get too distracted by this. There is a room for your own existence in space. Aware of the gentlest nuances of life geared into slow pace, we become richer than when speeding through the traffic to meet someone or to and from work. I wonder how many of you miss that, often stressful, commute? Perhaps you just miss the habit, that sense of communal sharing, rather than the moving yourself in either a crowded or boring (in a car) transport from home to elsewhere.

soundsheep on pasture

Sound, the pleasant form of it, has always been a great comfort to me. Whether deepening and enlivening my solitude, lifting me above the motorised city noise, injecting my run with energy and zest, or helping me to focus when reading or working, sound shifts my mood. The vibrations are so powerful that chanting, gong, and other resonating instruments of beautiful sound were invented to focus and calm our mind.

Professor Michael Trimble explains how chanting benefits your health. It can change the rhythm of your heart, your emotional response, and more.

I offer a poem on sound that I wrote as this winter shifted to spring. I hope, it will show you a new angle. These new horizons of sound can help you navigate this anxious times more pleasantly. At least they did it for me. If you want, play this healing music on Youtube while reading my poem.

Sound waving though my soul

vibrates calm strands of peace

Weaving the gentle ease

of my thoughts, heart beating slow

 

Sound healing an injured soul

An ancient remedy of malice

spinning away worry, prejudice

immersed in this song that penetrates all

 

Sound filling my lungs full

with nourishing nectar of dance

its wholesome breath lifts me to trance

Life silenced would be dull

 

Sound touching my time in full

sets me entirely in its presence

minutes penetrate my skull

As I embrace this lively essence

 

Sound living in all, and not at all

Revealed to those patient for its resonance 

sharing its secrets with nature’s nuance —

you feel life’s richness through its call

 ∼

There is a shift in my mind that I feel when listening to calming sound. I hope that tranquil emotions penetrate from the lyrics of my poem to your heart and mind. Savour the slower pace of life that we were given in these challenging times. I always try to see the good in the dark.