I woke this morning to the sound of kids laughing and playing on the kayaks in our pond. The laughter filled the room. I struggled to move from the comfortable covers and allowed the noise to take me to a place of peace. My favorite sound is laughter. A child’s laughter is the best!In that stillness, water splashing, guests talking and the birds chirping I found a sense of completeness. I have been going and going for weeks now. It feels like I am me again in my piece of heaven. Somehow I have been losing ground with finding time to hike, or just be with myself. Two days ago I sat for hours on our dock, trying to find a way to bring pigment to my skin so I can actually pass for a Latina. The sun and breeze brought me back to stillness just like this morning. Nature devours me intimately. I love this time of year.Stillness speaks volumes. As much as I chit chat (my mouth running all over the place) I need the silence inside to take over, especially during morning time. I tend to forget that during summer time I need to break away every so often and find quietness. I need solitude, recharging my spirit, and finding the Divine echoing through those moments. I often forget how utterly important stillness searches for me to meet in the meadows of serenity.There seems to be a gene in the body that fights the desire to be still. Stillness becomes intolerable. I find, even here in our retreat center, that very few people can sit still for hours. Our minds are constantly directing us to keep busy. For most of us, guilt sets in when we do take time to just be in the moment. Ego turns on the list of things that need to be done. Our culture has been programmed to move from one moment into another without the processing of just letting go. How very sad!On this Saturday, nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina, the breeze filling the house, I am attempting to just be. It’s a hammock kinda of day, and one filled with laughter from the outside slowly creeping into my heart. Have a wonderful one, y’all!"From all the measureless depths of air around us comes a half-sound, a half-whisper, as if we could hear the crumbling and falling away of earth and all created things, in the great miracle of nature, decay and reproduction, ever beginning, never ending,--the gradual lapse and running of the sand in the great hour-glass of Time."- Longfellow