when something like this happens, when things one has been holding on to are crumbling, can one go slowly, not immediately building up something else in their stead? that's what the brain immediately tries to do: build a new structure. rather, can one remain utterly silent with that state of uprootedness, lostness, not knowing where to go, not knowing what one really is or what it is that one has nourished and cherished, not grasping at anything? questioning it all, holding on to nothing, open to all the fears of insecurity, pain, and sinking feelings that the physical organism produces as an accompaniment to the thoughts?

toni packer
listening and looking.