The sky is perfectly light gray today. There’s not a distinction between clouds, just wholly gray oneness. It is light outside but the light is sort of filtered through that gray mass in the sky. I can see from my office window that it’s starting to rain. It’s a very western Washington day.

I’ve heard people complain about these gray Washington days. One who grew up in California and can’t fathom spending so many days a year blanketed in gray clouds with the sun not making an appearance. Another who is from Florida and thinks it’s dismal and dreary here. And many people who have lived here forever and would just prefer the sun. I know people who have moved away BECAUSE of the gray and the rain.

I have lived here most of my life. It is home to me. I don’t think people understand what so much rain means … it means GREEN all year. It means mild winters and summers. It means beautiful CLEAN nature. It means LIFE.

Rain is essential to our existence. Water sustains our being. Water is necessary for plants to grow. Humans NEED water to live too. Every time it rains I’m reminded of the fact that it’s nourishment to all things and I’m grateful.

What is needed to grow from an energy, infinite, “within” stand point; soul growth?

Nourishment is needed.  Food and water.

What are “food and water” for our soul?

I believe TRUTH is the soul’s food, and STILLNESS is the “water” that allows us to absorb the “nutrients” of the truth and that keeps our “essence” alive and flowing.

Have you ever heard someone say that you can survive without food, but you can’t go more than a few days without water? (survival secrets!)

Imagine never having water. (and there ARE people in the world in this situation and it breaks my heart and I DO think we all need to fix it for them, it’s not ok. Today, I don’t know how to do that. Let’s all figure it out though … people should have clean water to drink.) Without water you eventually die. You lose energy, you lose focus, you get sick, your body shuts down … it is not good. Water is ESSENTIAL to life.

Look at plants, for example, if you don’t water them they slowly wither away and turn brown and dry up. Water sustains their being.

Water sustains our being.

If stillness is like water to the soul, what happens when you DON’T give yourself that stillness?

You slowly “lose” or separate yourself from the essential essence of your being. It doesn’t go away, but it fades into the background. It becomes too quiet to hear. It becomes too “far away” to nourish you and spark growth and inspiration. It is like being dehydrated and thirsting when there is a crystal clear pure well of water available and you are CHOOSING not to drink.

What does it look like when we separate ourselves from the stillness?

Well, with tv and movies and cell phones and electronics and constant noise and busyness and all the stuff that makes life rushed and hurried and worried and stress and LOUD … there isn’t TIME for stillness, right?! We are too worried about getting everything DONE. We are so very focused on multi tasking and what’s happening next and how to fit in all the thousands of things we must do into our already tight schedules. STILLNESS? Psh. Nobody has got time for that.

In the meantime … we are always tired. We are frequently stressed. We fill our being with noise … actual noise; music, tv, movies, news, etc. and figurative “noise;” facebook, pinterest, activities, recipes, wreath making, clothes shopping, youtube, gaming, sports watching, “keeping up” with what’s “expected” of us … all the stuff.

It is exhausting.

There are good, wonderful things in the world that can and DO fill us with joy. There are things that are FUN and things we LOVE. These things are GOOD! These things are HELPFUL! These things lighten our existence and give us something to look forward to.

But there must be balance.

For example, food is good for our bodies, but if we eat too much it isn’t healthy. We must find that balance of nourishing food and the right amount of it to be in that spot that is our healthiest.

So too in our being … we must find that place of balance. We must find that spot that we’re able to be quiet, be still, and just let go of all the busyness and noise. That is stillness.

What does stillness look like?

In stillness there is the presence of calmness and tranquility, there is freedom from noise or turbulence, there is serenity, peace and quiet. It is a space of restfulness and replenishment. When you’re awake and still, you’re focused on the moment, the present, the now. There isn’t stress or worry, there’s just quietly being. It is well being and as we focus on making that a part of our lives it envelops us and we begin to thirst no more.

In stillness we are filled. In stillness we find that we were lacking that essential flow and it feels relieving to enter into it. In stillness we are able to be free from all the burden and care and it’s easy and light. In stillness we find that well of never ending water and it continually fills us and the stuff and noise of life is easier to balance and has less of a depleting effect.

Stillness is life for the soul. In stillness you hear and know and see.

Water your soul. It is necessary to LIVE. And you may think you’re living without that stillness, but in the stillness you will realize that you were just surviving before. You were not growing. When you connect to the flow of the peace within you, you will be relieved and you will be like a dehydrated thirsty person turning around and realizing you DID have a well of pure water RIGHT there.

In that limitless never ending well there is life. There is growth. There is progression. There is peace. There is light. There is only joy. It is possible to thirst no more … connecting to the stillness is like having access to a perfectly never ending well of water. It sustains your life and is so necessary.

Whatever it is that YOU do to be still and connect to the flow … do that. Take out the noise and worry from your life … even if it’s just for 5 minutes a day to start. Do SOMETHING that gives you peace everyday. As you do that, you will feel the peace and it will be like watering a dry barren ground and you’ll want more and more. It will be relieving and it will feel like LIFE.

I’m grateful for the rain today that reminded me that I NEED to water my soul and doing so sustains me, enlivens my being, and just feels like relief and joy.

Thank you for the rain!