Let me learn this quiet art

of being still in a room alone.

There is so much I cannot do

to help this world,

but this –

let me learn to metabolize

silence as the alga in lichen

metabolizes light. Let me learn

to root and grow

in the sparest of places

as the fungus of lichen attaches

to the barest of rocks.

Let me learn to let the vastly different

kingdoms of myself serve each other

instead of warring,

the way alga and fungus

live together in lichen,

a symbiosis so stable we see

the two as one. This is how

I come to believe it is possible.

I have been sitting with the lichen.

The quietest of sermons.

I cannot stop listening.

— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

— Opening poem chosen and read by Amy W.

Quotes from discussion:

“In stillness is peace.”

“One way of helping the world now is finding sanctuary in nature.  Silence is a GIFT amidst all the NOISE of the world.  And finding that sanctuary of peace, we can radiate that out to everyone we meet.”

“To find the joy and choose the positive fills me and touches all around me.”

— Photos and recorded quotes by Amy W.