Day 2: Practice Silence & Listening

Live in the Orange Zone - Day 2

30 Days of Self Study, Meditation and Reflection

Welcome to our 30 day commitment to our living in the Orange Zone. 

I am here in my special spot that I'll be in for 30 days. I'm in front of my little altar that I created this morning. I woke up early, which is really not easy for me, to do my little 10 minutes and light my candle and my devotional time.

I'd ask all of you to get a journal out and just start writing quotes or thoughts, or whatever is coming up for you. This was my day one. I am now starting to journal on day two. 

The quote that we're going to use today underneath for the 30 day meditation is one of my all time favorites. It's a translation of a Taoist passage. It's actually very unique by Dorien Israel. Most of you will remember, I've been sharing this with all of you for years, and the timing is so perfect because it's monarch season where the little caterpillars are going to start to emerge from the eggs. We all get to watch them grow and get fat and get fat and get fat until they make a little jay. Their imaginal cells, which is miraculous. we'll talk about this in the 30 days, start to form antennas and whatnot until it becomes this amazing monarch butterfly.

The Taoist passage talks about the caterpillar having a sense of something within him that is beginning to change. I feel like that's what we're doing right now as we begin to go back into our normal that won't be normal, it'll be very different, that we can feel a sense of something has been shifting in the last few months for us or in the last few weeks. I want us to have time to really listen to what that is. 

Part of the commitment for us is to have our devotional time and our journals and our meditation. I think an important aspect of that is silence.

Today is about listening. To make sure that maybe at the beginning... I'm going to do it at the beginning and the end - you could do it however you'd like to, that part of your commitment to this time sitting and reflecting and meditating and practicing the Orange Zone, which is moving into possibility is to listen to what's going on in your gut and in your heart. 

In order to do that, we have to shut all the noise out of our normal lives and responsibilities, so maybe even people in phones and put all of that aside. Just sit in silence for a few minutes and to listen.

This morning, when I was practicing, I was sitting here, this is actually my bedroom, and I just heard so many different birds. They were all birds, but there must've been five different songs going on from different types of birds. It had a message for me. In that, when we find the silence, maybe it just feels like medicine to be quiet and to just listen to ourselves in silence and nothing. 

Other times we might find that we start to speak and we hear things that we want to communicate with ourselves, our external selves, our internal selves. It's like, "Please listen to me. I have something to tell you. It's super important if you'd just listen."

That is our gift from this beautiful passage today. I hope you get a chance to watch it. I'll include the text on here and to maybe even journal today a little bit about that, that caterpillar who has a sense of something within it is already beginning to shift. Write about what within you right now is beginning to shift. 

Can you feel that? 
Can you just write about that? 
Can you just listen to that?

Day 2 Inspiration
Today's inspiration comes from the Tao de Ching

The Tao turns the tides
and changes caterpillars into butterflies.
Do you truly believe that it has less magic,
mystery or meaning in store for you?
Pay attention to what within you
is beginning to awaken.
The caterpillar can feel the essence 
of the butterfly
even before it begins to emerge.
Remember, butterflies are never
Born on the ground.
This type of total transformation occurs only after
an arduous climb up the trunk of the tree
and a perilous trip out
onto the barest branch.
Risk is the cost
of attaining anything of real value.
Create your own chrysalis of consciousness:
a protective cocoon in which
you realize yourself more wholly.
Dawning as a radiant light,
Awakening others in the same way.
-Tao de Ching, 78th Passage, translated by Dorien Israel.

Click the links below to find out more:
The Orange Zone - A 30 Day Practice - YouTube Playlist

​Daily Inspirational Quotes for 30 Day Meditation

Blog Post: What is the Orange Zone?