Surviving stormy times isn’t always peaceful… but finding the stillness and the path through it is possible. The storm petrel and a Buddhist perspective.
What inspires you to find calm in a stormy time?
Today I want to share someone else’s words. It’s a Buddhist writing from Tricycle, a journal I read weekly, and the deep dive the author takes inspired me today. I hope he inspires you.
Over the last year, I have been delving into Buddhist writings to help me discover stillness, guide my thoughts and actions, and keep a perspective. Suffering happens, but is impermanent. Meditation practice changes the way I proceed through my days.
But the last months have been challenging. And the chaos and strife of the last week has felt almost overwhelming to so many of us! The patients I am seeing in Urgent care may have a cut, a sprain, a cough; but every single one is also describing a sense of anxiety and exhaustion. (And I am just that sort of physician to spend the extra time supporting the spirit as well as the body, even in the Urgent Care setting.)
How do we survive when the storms in our nation and our word feel so violent and overwhelming? It’s challenging to find a grounded and calm place when the world around us truly is frightening and overwhelming.
Today I was inspired by author Gary Thorp, who writes about a tiny seabird who lives far out on the ocean during the stormiest times.
“It is the smallest of the world’s seabirds, roughly the same size as a sparrow, and weighing not much more than an ounce. Yet they thrive in the unprotected waters of the open sea, exposed to winds of the highest velocity, towered over by waves of the greatest magnitude, and hunted by larger, fiercer birds, sharks, and other predators.”
“The storm petrel is able to survive only by taking refuge in the vast ocean that surrounds it. Rather than allowing themselves to become overwhelmed by the enormity of their environment, these fragile and diminutive birds follow the paths of least resistance. During the worst weather, they place themselves deep down in the troughs of waves, using their delicate feet to push themselves away from the moving walls of wild water next to them, and letting the howling winds shear across the crests of waves high above. This is the bird’s own spontaneous dance of resourcefulness and survival, and it is only one example of the countless ways in which sentient beings take refuge….” read more
Sometimes survival is a delicate and exhausting dance. Today I will sit and nurture the inner stillness to remember that all storms are temporary.
What inspires you to find calm in a stormy time?