A fascinating little book came into my hands recently called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. For a die-hard minimalist like me, the simple and clear way Greg McKeown outlines the pursuit of only those things in life that are absolutely essential was profoundly refreshing. There is a short paragraph that seemed relevant to our monthly practice of a day of Silence. "Aristotle talked about three kinds of work, whereas in our modern world we tend to emphasize only two. The first is theorectical work, for which the end goal is truth.The second is practical work, where the objective is action.But there is a third: poietical work....the work of 'bringing-forth'." The original definition of poiesis, the work of ‘bringing forth’, is best described as: the blooming of the blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a cocoon, the plummeting of a waterfall when the snow begins to melt…a moment of directly experiencing the sacredness of all things, when something moves away from its standing as one thing to become another. Every Sunday by deliberately stepping back from all the busyness, slowing down, and only engaging with what is essential in the moment I return to this place of direct experience with the sacred in all things. Renewed and transformed in small yet perceptible ways I find myself ever more able to choose the actions for the next month that are truly mine to take ~ contented to say no and give all the rest back to the universe for someone else. May you find yourself ever more closely aligned with the essential in your own life so that your wellspring of Being is fresh and full for the tasks that await you. With love, Peri (and Barbara)