SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVES
  • Home
  • Lets Listen
    • Daily Lift
    • Radio Feature
    • Podcasts
    • For Kids
  • Lets talk
    • ...about healing prayer >
      • 7 Things I Wish Everyone knew...
    • ...about Christian Science
    • ...about Science
    • ...about Mary Baker Eddy
    • ...about Martin Luther King
  • Lets read
    • Lets read: TAKE 5!
    • Publications >
      • Articles
      • Poems
      • Healings
      • Sentinel Watch
      • Audio Podcasts
      • Religious Articles
      • For Children
      • Publications-German >
        • Artikel und Texte
        • Gedichte
        • Audio Podcasts
        • Für Kinder!
        • Heilungen
    • Posters
    • Lets be >
      • Lets be
      • Good Morning!
  • Lets connect
    • Annette
    • Annette's Practice
    • Practice Fees
    • Pay a bill
    • Contact
    • Site notice
  • Ideas
    • My favorite day
    • How are you?
    • Volunteering
    • Show Up - Every Day
    • How unrest ends
    • Know the image
    • Right Thinking
    • Spiritual practices
    • A word-A world
  • German Website
    • German Audio

       
Ideas



Pockets of Stillness

27/10/2016

 
Picture
Picture
When our children were younger I read a philosophical article about the value of boredom. It resonated with me because I saw the need to counteract the urge of society to feed children with stuff - films, ads, games, entertainment. Boredom might not be the exact word, but the main idea was that times of quiet "nothingness" are the prerequisite for creativity. It is a great thing to wrap up children in love 24/7, but this doesn't mean to paste them up with entertainment all day. It is a good thing to realize, in a modest way, that real ideas, good ideas, come from the inner world. In practical terms we ensured that each of the children had a required half an hour alone, without external stimulus. Time in the garden or quietly in a cozy niche. Think time. Zoë still calls this "Zoë time" today. Only in stillness and yes, boredom at times, can true creativity unfold. And it did. And it always will. Because of the richness of the world of ideas which can't but express itself constantly.

Pockets of stillness for adults are a walk around the block. A study with the sole aim of learning and growing - not to fix something. Half an hour of no interruption from texts, the facebook messenger, tweets. Time to observe and be quiet. For busy parents rushing from A to B a quiet moment in the parkinglot. A ride with the bike without aim. Moments of reflection in an armchair (no smartphone near by). Time with a cup of tea by the window contemplating. Not pushing anything, just being. Sometimes the silence is filled with angel messages, sometimes it is just - silence. Quiet. I can talk about it also, because I put as a professor and now as practitioner of Christian Science healing appointments with myself into my calendar which I played for keeps as I did and do with appointments with others. In these times I reflected, I read the new Christian Science Sentinel or a passage in the Bible. Without agenda. Just quiet listening. I have come to observe this rule to express itself in my experience: True listening is yielding to true unfoldment. 

Pockets of stillness are crucial for survival - they distinguish existence from being, they connect us with a positive sense of unity with our divine source. They teach us to listen. They reveal in modest and gentle ways the dignity and worth of being. And they strengthen our resilience to express more individuality, less mass thinking in our life. And this every day. Because, as I wrote before: The way we live our days is the way we live our life.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of the Science of Being and the most outstanding healer of the modern age, gave this advice to a totally stressed out pupil, infusing the note with her remarkable sense of humour and wisdom:


“You can take my method, bar your doors, and then hold your solitude with moral dignity by meeting the merciless selfishness of callers with a fixed rule and the divine imperative Principle to be alone with God and never break this rule till you have your interval of study and prayer. I am an exception to all peace on earth – but not to “good will.” The mail and the male and the female claim undisputed powers to break my peace and rob me of all individual exemption from labor. But you have no need of thus surrendering your rights for others. I have written this in bed in the still hours while others sleep, - after 3 o.c. in the morning.” (Mary Baker Eddy, cited in Lyman Powell, The life of Mary Baker Eddy, p. 182).
 
No wonder that she could write about "an indefinable pleasure in stillness, soft, silent as the storm's sudden hush." (Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 3) With pockets of silence in your day, the pleasure of stillness is yours - every day.

Picture
Sandy Warren
27/10/2016 03:29:13 pm

Lovely thoughts! I have long valued the beauty and healing power of stillness. Often it's difficult to "hear" God until we still the cacophony of the human condition. My stillness is often in the early morning hours before the day starts. Or, more properly, stillness IS the start to my day!

Candy Nartonis
27/10/2016 03:45:30 pm

Ahhh! Tea on the dock. Profound peace.

Kate
27/10/2016 03:47:13 pm

Beautiful. Simply stated and so encouraging. Taking time to notice what God is already busy at and letting stillness be our new busy! Thank you.

Ruth link
28/10/2016 09:58:01 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth link
28/10/2016 09:58:30 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth link
28/10/2016 09:58:48 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth
28/10/2016 09:59:16 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth
28/10/2016 09:59:38 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth
28/10/2016 09:59:51 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth
28/10/2016 10:00:19 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.

Ruth
28/10/2016 10:00:24 am

Thank you for this reflection on stillness Annette. Like rests in music or pauses in dance, such prayerful moments help to shape the rhythm of our days, and align thought to the "music of the spheres" and to God's directing.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Who is writing?

    ​Dr. Annette Kreutziger-Herr

    In my work as Christian Science practitioner and writer I draw on listening to God and listening to people.
    I strive to love deeper and work better,
    every day. Here I share ideas as occasion demands.
    ​

    Picture
    Picture
    I support the UN Refuge Agency. Want to join me?
    Picture
    ​​​I support
    "Sunrise of Africa".
    Want to join me?​

    Categories

    All
    Abundant
    Advent
    Affection
    Afghanistan
    Akhil Sharma
    Animals
    Apartheid
    Apples
    Atmosphere
    Beauty
    Bible
    Book
    Bread
    Children
    Christmas
    Competition
    Complaining
    Cows
    CS Monitor
    Daily
    Danger Zone
    Darkness
    Day
    Death
    Depression
    Discovery
    Dislike
    Doctrine
    Do It
    Doubt
    Dualism
    Effort
    Endeavor
    Envy
    Evidence
    Expectancy Of Good
    Fear
    Feeling
    Follow
    Forgiveness
    Forgiving
    Foxes
    Freedom
    Freshness
    Freshness Redemption Progress Movement
    Friendship
    Fruit
    Fruits
    Gentleness
    Getting Along
    Gift
    Ginger Rogers
    Global
    God
    Golden Rule
    Graduation
    Gratitude
    Happiness
    Harmony
    Healing
    Health
    Heart
    Help
    Home
    Humanity
    Humility
    Image
    Imperfection
    Intelligence
    Joy
    Justin Timberlake
    Kind
    Kindness
    Knowledge
    Landscape
    Learning
    Library
    Life
    Light
    Like
    Listening
    Local
    Long Time Exposure
    Love
    Man
    Martin-luther
    Mary Baker Eddy
    Maya Angelou
    Mentoring
    Mercy
    Mind
    Modesty
    Morning
    Music
    Negativity
    Nelson Mandela
    New
    One
    Oneness
    Opinions
    Overcoming-judgment
    Pain
    Panic
    Past
    Paul
    Peace
    Perfection
    Persistence
    Plants
    Platinum
    Pneuma
    Politics
    Postmodernism
    Prayer
    Psalms
    Public
    Purity
    Purpose
    Reflection
    Respect
    River
    Roger McGowen
    Ron Radford
    Rules
    Salt
    Sea
    Stars
    Still
    Study
    Substance
    Success
    Sunshine
    Supply
    Surface
    Tears
    Truth
    Unity
    Universe
    University
    Unselfishness
    Usefulness
    Visibility
    Who
    Wholeness
    Work
    Worry
    Yes

     My Archive

    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Picture
© Copyright 2023. All rights reserved. Content may not be used except by permission. Annette Kreutziger-Herr, CS
Artwork by Anna-Zoë Herr. Photography by Annette Kreutziger-Herr, Martin Speer, Anna-Zoë Herr.
  • Home
  • Lets Listen
    • Daily Lift
    • Radio Feature
    • Podcasts
    • For Kids
  • Lets talk
    • ...about healing prayer >
      • 7 Things I Wish Everyone knew...
    • ...about Christian Science
    • ...about Science
    • ...about Mary Baker Eddy
    • ...about Martin Luther King
  • Lets read
    • Lets read: TAKE 5!
    • Publications >
      • Articles
      • Poems
      • Healings
      • Sentinel Watch
      • Audio Podcasts
      • Religious Articles
      • For Children
      • Publications-German >
        • Artikel und Texte
        • Gedichte
        • Audio Podcasts
        • Für Kinder!
        • Heilungen
    • Posters
    • Lets be >
      • Lets be
      • Good Morning!
  • Lets connect
    • Annette
    • Annette's Practice
    • Practice Fees
    • Pay a bill
    • Contact
    • Site notice
  • Ideas
    • My favorite day
    • How are you?
    • Volunteering
    • Show Up - Every Day
    • How unrest ends
    • Know the image
    • Right Thinking
    • Spiritual practices
    • A word-A world
  • German Website
    • German Audio