Standstill - Stillness - Silence

Standstill - Stillness - Silence:

One cannot help but register the effects and implications this Corona crisis has on all of us and on literally every aspect of our lives.

What is most remarkably felt is the standstill, the pause, the rest of the hurly-burly. Therein lies a chance.

Out of T. S. Eliot’s remarkable poem, “The Four Quartets”, come these few lines:

“...At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, ...”

We so greedily embrace the busyness of our normal exhaustively led lives because this makes it so easy to forget oneself, to forget the constantly in the back of our head implemented thought of the “big why”, the purpose and reason for all of what we are doing. 

This is, I readily admit, the human condition, the sadly hopeless but also invigorating question which drives us onward, the motor on which our existence thrives and relies. 

But it is also a dangerously disheartening thought, this probing for revelation, for answers which truly cannot be either found nor given. We will never fully understand why we are what we are and why all is as it is. To some it is a consolation then to forget themselves, to ease this anxiety, which really is fear of the future, in the hurly-burly, the distracting chaotic busyness which daily life consists of. 

Now something forced us to hold still, to rest, if we are willing or not and as frustrating this seems and feels, there is this small element of hope and confidence that lies within it. 

People start to complain that nothing is happening anymore, nothing of value to experience, to enjoy. No concerts, no exhibitions, no movies, hardly any social interaction anymore. Nothing is happening! This is a misconception. Something is happening, after all! Namely Silence and Stillness. 

Stillness is a form of action. Stillness is an energetic quality of being. Stillness allows us to find back to ourselves, to get in touch once again with ourselves, because it eliminates outside distractions. There is a spiritual necessity of stillness.

Even when nothing is happening, something always is happening. Almost every creative person feels that. Even when not actively creating something there is always something going on inside. Any artist knows of this space between the stage where the work is yet too unformed in the mind to be presentable and the stage where it is ready to be physically manifested. Stillness is a most welcome tool to allow the work to solidify and be born. I think this is true not only for artists but for all of us, in almost every respect. 

Do coming events throw shadows? If so I think I feel shadows which tell of a slightly different approach, a change in attitude, towards life and the way we live it. There might occur a shift in evaluation of certain aspects of our lives which up until now have rested unquestioned. 

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