What We Did Not Know Was Coming Series: Calmness — A Quality of Light Embodied by Mahatma Gandhi

PREFACE: To say the last seven years have been a journey of growth for me and this country is an understatement. To help me process and cope with the roller-coaster of emotions I have felt these years, I started writing on Medium right after the 2016 election. My last series ended December 31, 2020, after Biden won the presidential election.

Recently I realized I missed writing “in my journal” and decided to go back to the very beginning and re-read my essays. I wanted to see where I started out on November 9, 2016, and where I am now. I decided to repost my favorite blogs with a short present-day commentary and continue onto current times.

I hope a few of you will join me on this journey of recollection, reflection, and learning. Little did we know what we were headed into.

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Calmness — A Quality of Light Embodied by Mahatma Gandhi: Dec 5, 2016

Calmness can be defined as a state of mind free from agitation, excitement, or disturbance. It is synonymous with serenity, tranquility, or peace. Calmness is freedom from motion or disturbance; it is stillness, composure and quietness. Honestly, I feel myself relaxing as I write these words.

What I love about calmness is that one can be still and calm while chaos, crisis, and turmoil swirl around the individual. A beautiful metaphor that describes our human experience is the eye of a hurricane. The eye is a region of mostly calm weather with light winds and clear skies at the center of a hurricane. The eye of a storm is a roughly circular area, typically 20–40 miles in diameter. It is surrounded by a ring of towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather occurs. In all storms, the eye is the location of the storm’s minimum barometric pressure where the atmospheric pressure at sea level is the lowest — calmest.

In our daily lives we are bombarded with information from television, computers, smart phones, IPads, all our social media devices. We are overwhelmed every day with the demands of work, home, church and social engagements. We are connected to war, famine, plane crashes and death real time as it happens around the world. Our nervous systems are literally fried with 200 milliamps of electricity going through our 10 milliamp minds and bodies. Our lives may feel like towering thunderstorms where the most severe weather occurs. This is a dangerous place to live day in and day out. It is a dangerous place from which to make important decisions about our lives that may affect us today or for years.

It is hard to be thoughtful, reflective, and grounded when we are being tossed around by the storms of life. So how do we get to the eye — the “I” where one can hear that still small voice that always guides us to the right next step? To our highest good? Since he is one of my heroes, I wanted to see how Mahatma Gandhi found the “I” when he took on the British Empire. Here are some of his thoughts:

1. When one comes to think of it one cannot help feeling that nearly half the misery of the world would disappear if we, fretting mortals, knew the virtue of silence. Before modern civilization came upon us, at least six to eight hours of silence out of twenty-four were vouchsafed to us. Modern civilization has taught us to convert night into day and golden silence into brazen din and noise. What a great thing it would be if we in our busy lives could retire into ourselves each day for at least a couple of hours and prepare our minds to listen in to the Voice of the Great Silence. The Divine Radio is always singing if we could only make ourselves ready to listen to It, but it is impossible to listen in without silence. (Harijan , 24–9-’38, p. 267)

2. Silence has now become both a physical and spiritual necessity for me. Originally it was taken to relieve the sense of pressure. Then I wanted time for writing. After, however, I had practiced it for some time, I saw the spiritual value of it. It suddenly flashed across my mind that that was the time when I could best hold communion with God. And now I feel as though I was naturally built for silence. (Food Of My Soul, 10–12–1938, p323–4)

3. Silence is a great help to a seeker after truth like myself. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth, and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height. (Truth is God, (1959), p. 53)

4. It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent. I know the wonderful efficacy of silence. I visited a Trappist monastery in South Africa. A beautiful place it was. Most of the inmates of that place were under a vow of silence. I inquired of the Father the motive of it and he said the motive is apparent: ‘We are frail human beings. We do not know very often what we say. If we want to listen to the still small Voice that is always speaking within us, it will not be heard if we continually speak.’ I understood that precious lesson. I know the secret of silence. (Young India, 6–8-’25, pp. 274–75)

Mahatma Gandhi was the “I” of the storm for his entire country as India sought its independence from Britain. He could fulfill that role only when he found the “I” within his personal and public storm. He found calmness through the practices of silence, prayer, meditation, simplicity, fasting and spinning cloth.

Why am I writing about him? Because nationally and politically we are headed into challenging times and unless those of us who supported Hillary can find some calmness we are going to suffer terribly for the next four years. We will need to find our still quiet center to preserve our sanity; we also need to find it for from the silence will come answers that will guide us to right action. Calmness is a quality of light we can all embody.

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Commentary: November 6, 2023

I have such compassion for myself as I read the words above. Little did I know I would not have calmness for even a day of my life until Democrats won the majority in the House of Representatives in 2018. Even then the calmness was fleeting. I calmed more when Joe Biden was elected president in 2020 and we won the majority in the Senate. That calmness was shattered with the insurrection of January 6th.

The chaos and noise and distress of the last seven years have taken a terrible toll on my mental and physical health. I am not alone in that. I have heard pundits comment we are a nation suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome) coming out of the trump years, the Covid years, the January 6th years, and more. I would not disagree.

Many of my clients are trauma survivors. I am a trauma survivor. I can attest professionally and personally that those who have experienced trauma feel a constant tension in their bodies. They feel like a tightly wound spring that makes them hyper-vigilant and agitated. Not only is the body in physical distress so too is the mind filled with spinning thoughts and urges jumping around like the “a hyperactive or drunken monkey” — a Buddhist metaphor for the mind in distress.

So what is one to do? How can one create moments whereby we can live in the “eye of the storm” for even an instant of calm? I know a lot about that intellectually and so what? I still get caught up in chaos and just spin.

To create mental and physical health, I needed to take some practical action steps to bring silence and calm into my life. Here are a few of my action steps initiated in the last two years. I

· cancelled Comcast so I would no longer have access to CNN and MSNBC 24/7

· have only the most basic internet streaming service so I have minimal exposure to third string news which I do not watch

· cancelled all social media accounts

· significantly limit my access to written news most days just skimming the headlines from the Washington Post, Atlantic, Guardian and New York Times

· have the volume off and closed caption on when watching television which is usually YouTube nature streaming, British programming, or re-runs of all the Star Trek series

· joined a Quaker Meeting and participate in silent meetings

· journal in the morning — I have two journals: one is for stream of consciousness thoughts and feelings, the other is a gratitude journal

· walk all over Washington DC exploring museums, monuments parks, gardens, and water features several times a week

· read good novels

· do needlepoint and embroidery

· have lunch each week with my beloved son

· invite far-away friends to visit me for a weekend in my newly adopted city

· meditate

· take hot baths

· leave my hearing aids in their case unless I am with another person

· leave my phone on Do Not Disturb

· play computer games (something my son introduced me to — I love the world building games) with the sound off

And finally, I cry. Yes, I cry often — I cry for all of us who suffer so in this chaotic, mean and beautiful world. For a few moments after a big snotty nose cry, I feel great calm. I will take that.

I feel blessed and entitled that I am able to care for myself in the ways listed above; I know everyone cannot. I do pray though that each of us finds our own tools that will get us to the eye of the storm. May we all meet there in calmness and silence.