Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Are you ready to try and relax your body after a long day of playing and running and doing whatever you've been doing?
It's time to let go.
Be still.
Maybe take a nice big deep breath in and blow it out to go over any tension.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veya had got themselves into quite a pickle.
It was a pickle because they signed themselves up to go on a silent retreat.
Unfortunately they didn't really understand what a silent retreat was.
They'd gone with some friends,
Drove deep into the countryside to a retreat center in the middle of nowhere.
It was so pretty and peaceful and quiet there.
When they arrived,
Cherry noticed something.
They got out of the car and smiled and said hello to the people walking around,
Just walking around.
Some of them were looking at the sky.
Some of them were staring into space.
Some people were just watching their feet as they walked forward.
It was very quiet.
Cherry said,
Morning,
Morning,
Good morning,
Good morning,
Hello,
So excited to be here.
Yep,
So excited to meet everyone.
No one said anything.
Not one single hello.
No one looked at them.
No one raised their eyes and smiled.
Nothing.
Cherry looked back at Heidi and Veya that were following.
That's a bit strange,
Said Cherry.
Not very friendly,
Are they?
They got into where they signed up for their rooms at the hotel reception,
Put their bags into their rooms and then they had to say goodbye to their friends.
Three cats were in a room together.
The rooms had bunk beds.
There was a knock at the door and someone came to the door.
They announced themselves that they were one of the mediators that worked there at the retreat center.
They had till one o'clock to talk to each other and then it would be complete silence for the next three days.
Heidi said,
Pardon?
Veya said,
Hmm,
Me doesn't quite understand.
Cherry said,
What?
We like signed up for a silent retreat because we thought that when you meditate that we'd be silent but then all the rest of the time we'd be able to talk to each other.
You know,
Like meet people,
Meet and greet and be nice and friendly and get to know new friends and stuff.
We thought that just being quiet on your meditation that was like,
Yeah,
We could do that,
Couldn't we?
The mediator explained that that wasn't the case.
They were actually to be silent the whole three days.
No talking,
No smiling or silent language like nodding and saying hi with your eyes or communicating in any way at all.
This was your time.
Even when you got back to your room to not talk and be completely silent,
To go inside,
To be introspective,
To allow whatever happens to whatever come up to come up.
He talked for a while and explained all the rules and how it would work and even when they ate together at meal times there was no communication,
Nothing.
And then he left.
At this point it was half past 12.
He had half an hour to talk.
Cherry said,
I think we should leave.
I think we should just escape.
I think this is an absolutely awful idea.
When his friends invited us,
I didn't understand it was going to be like this.
I thought,
Oh,
Lovely,
A nice spiritual weekend.
We'll get to dive into some deep meditation.
You know,
Corey always talks about meditation.
Even silent meditation sounds nice.
You know,
That type where you just sit and be quiet and think about your knees and,
You know,
Just ponder on the world and life purpose and all of that kind of stuff.
I can do a bit of that but I didn't realize we'd be going,
We'd be going,
Going to not be able to talk all weekend.
And I didn't realize that we'd have five 45 minute silent meditations together in the great hall.
And I didn't realize we were going to have like a spiritual guru teacher talk to us for three hours every afternoon about our purpose.
I don't think I need to know my purpose that much.
I think I just need to know that I'm a cat.
My name's Cherry.
I'm awesome.
What else do I need to know?
I mean,
I think we should just leave.
They said,
Me,
Me thinks we should give it a try.
I mean,
We are here.
We did sign up.
We paid.
We traveled all this way.
It's a beautiful place.
We should just stay and be with nature and be quiet.
How hard could it be?
Heidi said,
I agree.
I think you'll be able to do it.
Just try and be quiet.
That's all you've got to do.
No talking.
I think you can do it.
You can do anything,
Anything,
Cherry.
You can do this.
Cherry said,
Yeah,
You're right.
You are right.
You know,
I am really good at anything I try.
I just panicked there for a little minute.
I panicked because I thought,
You know,
I can make so many people happy when I talk.
And just my smile alone is like sunshine.
And if I can't smile and I can't talk and,
You know,
I can't express my awesomeness,
Then how's anybody going to know who I am?
How's anybody going to know how awesome I am?
That's a bit scary.
What's it going to be like if no one's paying attention to me?
I like attention.
I like a lot of attention.
That's why I'm the way I am.
Because I like to be people looking at me and stuff and liking me and telling me how awesome I am.
And tell me how funny I am.
Tell me how great I am.
How are they going to do that if I can't talk and I can't smile and I can't show them how awesome and great I am?
I'm just going to be no one.
Oh,
I think we should leave.
Heidi said,
No,
We can do it.
And you know that you're not no one.
You don't need the grand persona and grand drama and grand loudness and gestures and all the rest of it to show that you're someone.
You can just be quiet.
Just be you.
Be still and silent inside.
Cherry said,
Oh gosh,
This sounds absolutely awful.
I'm panicking.
I'm panicking.
I'm panicking.
I need to breathe.
Do we have a paper bag?
I need to breathe in a paper bag.
I think I'm hyperventilating.
I think I am.
I think I'm hyperventilating.
Oh my goodness,
I'm going to be normal.
I'm going to be so normal.
I'm just going to blow.
I'm going to be so normal.
I'm going to be so normal.
I'm just going to blend into a gray cloud of people walking around looking at the feet,
Not smiling or doing anything with each other.
All right,
I might as well just end it all now.
I might as well just end it all now.
It was one o'clock.
Time to be quiet.
Silence.
The silence was so strange.
They could hear the birds singing outside.
The wind was blowing.
There was a beach not too far away and they could hear the ocean crashing against the shore.
They could almost hear the trees talking,
Creaking,
Moaning in the wind.
Silence was deafening.
Cherry looked horrified.
Every time Heidi and Vale looked at her,
She looked like she was going to burst out with a complete conversation any moment,
Like her cheeks were all puffed out,
Like she was going to.
.
.
But she didn't.
She stayed quiet.
Everyone was quiet.
The whole weekend was quiet.
Meal times,
Shower times.
Every meditation,
Five times a day.
All you heard was rustles of people's clothing.
The occasional swallow sound when people swallowed or sneezed or coughed in the great hall.
There must have been hundreds and hundreds of people in there,
All being quiet and still together.
All in the same pool of consciousness.
Quiet.
At the end of the weekend,
They checked out,
Got back in their car to drive home with their friends.
And everyone was still silent.
Cherry said,
Feels strange to talk.
Don't know what to say.
I didn't realize how much I talked and talked and talked for no reason.
I just talked a lot.
What for?
Some of the friends said some comments about their experience.
They said,
Me just thought it was so nice.
Peaceful and quiet.
I learned so much about myself.
Heidi said,
I realized that my mind never stops thinking.
It's constantly thinking about facts,
Dates,
Numbers,
Times,
Information.
It's always going on and on and on and on and on.
Never stops.
It's never quiet.
Cherry didn't say anything.
She didn't have a sarcastic thing to say,
A funny thing to say.
She was just smiling and listening to the other people say what they needed to say.
She wasn't being loud and bossy and sassy.
None of it.
Everyone was a little bit worried.
They got back home.
They unpacked the suitcase,
Put a load of washing on and then went to lay down on their big soft comfortable bed.
Cherry said,
Good night.
I love you.
Closed her eyes and went to sleep.
Heidi looked at Faya.
Faya shrugged her shoulders.
I don't know.
Faya said,
I hope she's back to normal tomorrow.
I miss her.
Heidi said,
It's just not same around here with a quiet cherry.
Just doesn't feel the same.
They both closed their eyes and fell fast asleep back in their own comfortable bed.
The end.
Thanku for watching!
You You You You You You You
