Our monthly practice of silence often inspires friends to send us articles, poems, videos and personal reflections from around the world. The following email was sent from a dear friend, Wiebke, who had organized a six-month trek across the length of Nepal. She wrote this shortly before her final departure:

Dearest Peri -

Today I am thinking of you…. because I am so consciously slowing down….slowing down before my big adventure, the departure for Nepal. I am leaving this coming Wednesday and then I have another 2 weeks in Kathmandu before we will head to the far east of Nepal.

I am slowing down, trying to make space. To stop what I am doing and have been doing and create space for stillness. How do you prepare for something as big as this, especially after all the bits and pieces, the logistics, the packing, the money, the flat, work and people ….have been taken care of - how do you prepare? Inside? I am so curious about that….and what feels like the right thing to do is to just be. to be still and see what comes….There might be words, that want to find their way to the page. There might just be thoughts…or a sense deep in my bones….

When such busyness has been the overwhelming paradigm it is fascinating to see what happens when one stops….

Because of all these thoughts I am thinking of you today because your home will forever be edged in my memory as a place of stillness and beauty and peace! I hope it still is! And I hope you still are (all those things :-)

I was meant to run a facilitator training next week before I head into the mountains….and because of all of what I just write about above I chose to cancel it for now because it felt like just too much! My need for space and slowing down felt more important….

The very deliberate and disciplined way that Wiebke chose to pause and create quiet space is a powerful example of “silence in action,” discerning when to stop, when to listen when to say “no,” and when to connect back to one’s own wellspring of being.

Wiebke has just returned home from her trek safe and sound. And my sister Nancy was amongst those on the trip who had a month of quiet time herself trekking in this most beautiful part of the world.

With blessings,

Peri (and Barbara)