Snow Falling on Silence

Another snowy gray day. Even though it's winter, southern Colorado usually has blue skies, even if it's only twenty degrees out. But not today, today the skies are gray and what started as minute snow has grown larger and it's coming down more heavily.

A snowy day can be a real good day to take a moment for introspection. The naturally slow pace of the falling flakes can give the moment a noticeable calm.

Check the stress levels, how is the mind doing? What is it doing?
Does it's pace and content match the falling snow?

One day at a time, one thought at a time, one flake at a time.
And between each thought and between each flake, what is there?

Can you take a few moments to just sit or stand, watch the snow fall, and listen to the peaceful space between the flakes?

Snowfall can be a metaphor for our inner journey, the thought processes in our mental environment, which is, for most of the day, the inner dialogue we have with ourselves.

Marina Raye is a musician who draws from her inspiration from her deep love for the earth. She has a strong vision about the awakening of peace in every heart. In the notes for her album Snow Falling on Silence she references a small story by Kurt Kauter about the conversation between a sparrow and a wild dove.

In this story the sparrow asks the dove what the weight of a snowflake is. The dove's reply is "nothing more then nothing." The Sparrow then tells the dove that it had been counting the flakes of snow settling on a the twigs and needles of its branch. Everything was fine when flake number 3,744,952 settled on the branch, but when the next flake, flake 3,744,953 landed the branch broke.

The dove thought about this for awhile and then said, "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come about in the world."

So this fable is a kind of twist on the old "straw that broke the camels back", or perhaps "the hundredth monkey". If we cultivate serenity and space in our moments, we can realize peace in our lives instead of each thing we react to being "the last straw." In this way we can be one more entity experienceing peace on the planet, adding to the ever growing number of people having the same realization in their lives.