There is a beautiful stream out in the woods behind our pasture, thanks to a new bridge, they are accessible to us after several years of frustration. The stream is going to be a permanent part of something new I am instituting in my life, I call it the Peaceful Hour.

Our farm, like your home or apartment, is no longer easily protected from the din and argument raging outside of our fences, so I am always looking for ways to continue my pursuit of a spiritual life, and of finding peace and perspective. I feel sometimes to be drowning in hysteria, as if life had become a kind of ugly Super Bowl, the roars and chants never seem to stop.

This new and quite beautiful stream will help. Tomorrow, I’ll walk out there and take a video of it and you can also hear the sounds, they are ancient and soothing and grounding. Every afternoon or early evening, when I am done my work,  I pause, turn off cellphones, I sit and meditate for a few minutes, I might read, or sit quietly in a peaceful place – the barn, our living room by a fire, or outside by this rushing stream.

There, I close the anger and cruelty and self-righteousness of the world off, I seal myself away from it, and give myself the chance to think and draw breath.

It is a good time for thinking, for listening, for going inside of myself and settling, for absorbing the day, my life. Next week, Maria is off to India (next Sunday) and I will be grateful for the peaceful hour. I will think about ways to do good, to stand in my truth, to respect myself.

The stream is very close to our new meditation bench. I will pull it closer. I love this addition to my peaceful hour. I learned when I wrote Running To The Mountain and studied Thomas Merton that you don’t need a monastery to find solitude, you can find it in your basement, or attic, or living room. It helps to have a stream.

Every day, I will protect my Peaceful Hour. It just got easier.