Falling Effortlessly ©2021 Louise Gallagher I stand and watch the sun bathe the distant mountains in morning’s glory. Day awakens. It beckons me to be right here, right where I’m at. Breathing deeply, I surrender and the beauty of the moment catches me falling effortlessly into Love’s enduring embrace.
I stand on the platform of the small observation deck built into the side of the hilltop, just before the path dips down into the valley below.
In the distant horizon, the rising sun bathes the mountains in morning’s glory. A Chinook Arch stretches itself across the sky like a blanket thrown across the frozen ground to warm it up.
I want to capture the moment. To freeze it under the klieg lights of my attention as if in its frozen image I will find myself free of thought, fully present here.
Still, my mind chatters. I wish I’d put my hat on. My ears are cold. Don’t forget to drop that canvas off at JD’s today for our Zoom visit Friday. I wonder if I turned the coffee on before Beaumont and I left for our morning walk. I must remember to call the dog groomer’s today.
A Canada Goose, floating on the river below, honks loudly. repeatedly. In its cacophony, I hear it saying, ‘Stop listening to your brain chatter. Listen. Listen deep to the world around you.”
I give my head a shake. Beaumont keeps sniffing at the snow along the trail.
I close my eyes. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out.
The thrum of a train heading west vibrates in the air. The hum of traffic plays like a counterpoint to the melody of the river below where as it rounds a curve downriver, the ice forces it to bunch up into a rushing stream racing to get through the narrower channel. A bird twitters somewhere in a tree.
I keep my eyes closed.
I listen. Deep.
I want to take it all in. To hold it all in one thought-filled moment. But it escapes, like steam from a pressure cooker being slowly released.
I breathe. Deep. And open my eyes.
Sunrise has slipped into day. The geese still float languidly on the surface of the water below. The river keeps flowing eastward. Time flows in all directions.
And I wonder. Where do my thoughts go when I stop listening to their chatter?
And I smile. It doesn’t matter where they go. What matters is, will I let them pull my attention away from being here, right now?
Will I follow the randomness of my mind or follow my heart’s desire to know stillness. Peace. Calm. Tranquility.
I take a breath and Beaumont and I keep walking.
Beauty walks with us.
Dare Boldly 
So lovely. And thank you so much for the bookmark- It’s really pretty! And I feel it too, as if we could become really good friends. What a treat!
See you tonight!
Lilli Ann
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I’m so glad it arrived — and so grateful for your presence here, and in the writing circle. To really good friends! ❤
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I know what you’re talking about. I can get control of my mind’s craziness during the day. It’s during the night, I can’t stop the circus going on and on and on – I DO KNOW that there’s absolutely nothing I can do to better things and even in my bottomless tiredness I realise how foolish this is but I just cannot put my mind to rest. I never achieve to empty my brain, I can’t do ‘Zen, Yoga, Relaxation’, I tried hypnosis – and off they went, my thoughts, at the faintest encouragement of ‘thinking of a pleasant moment in your life’….. I’m glad you find your breath – I must get a dog!
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Ah yes. The night-time circus.
I have learned to not empty my mind but to watch it drift, like the river. Sort of like Swiss Cheese — I let the thoughts flow through the holes. 🙂
The course I took last year – The Embodied Present Process/Radical WHoleness – really helped me find that breath.
And yes — a dog is a great antidote to restless mind syndrome. ❤
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I fall without effort but a different type of falling
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You made me laugh out loud! I so adore you. ❤
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Slow down girl. I was enjoying the painting in my mind of the Chinook Arch but then was exhausted by the time I read half your post. There is nothing that important in today’s pandemonium that warrants your mind racing at warp speeds. Tomorrow morning enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature as another day awakens, silently awakening your senses.
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LOL — my mind has a habit of racing at warp speed, until I slow it down through every breath. And then, the racing stops and I find myself again, in time, right where I’m at. 🙂 ❤
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absolutely lovely……every – single – word.
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Yum. Thank you Wendi. ❤
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🙂
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