Quotes About Serenity

There was something satisfying in a cessation of paddling on smooth water. It was like watching a flock of ducks all stop beating at once and sail over a bank of trees on extended wings.

Ren thought she was beautiful; if her features had a purity it was because, he thought, the light that burned inside her was pure.

he thought he could sit on this deck and watch that stream for the rest of his life.

Rock rock. Back and forth. Lull. Push. Release. Swing back. The stars, the leaves, even the sound of the creek throbbing back and forth. Of a boat. Of a hammock. Of a child's swing. Of a womb. Back and forth. Rock rock. Smell of cold current, of stone, manure, blossom. Sleep.

You rest now. Rest for longer than you are used to resting. Make a stillness around you, a field of peace. Your best work, the best time of your life will grow out of this peace. And don't worry, compa, you will be rowdy and out of control again. You will throw off every kind of light. You can't help yourself.

And a spiderweb's gleamings in the exposed roots of a cut bank. And in a tailwater pool: the spreading rings of rising trout, dapping silently like slow rain.

I stood knee deep in the cold water, eyes closed, and listened to the end of the day over the river. Then I opened my eyes and pulled the line and began making long casts upstream just off the bank. The new rod was light and alive in my hand, it was beautiful, and the line sang out fast and smooth with a whisper like scratching a guitar string. I didn't mind the sound at all.

This is how I healed. Or didn't. One evening I took her down to the river. We turned off the highway and rattled slowly up the gravel road and into the heart of the canyon. The walls closed in above us, the high blue of the sky deeper, deep and dark like a river is deep. The highest rock at the rim was a strip of fire, holding the last long sun. The old gorge was a vessel and it was filling with shadow, slowly and with wind.

What wind there was died to a breath they could barely feel.

They shoved off and picked up the paddles. They could see their breath. In the gray dawn the river smoked with tendrils of mist. No wind, the water glass-smooth. No sound but the current frilling the stones of the bank. No bird chatter, no crickets. The river and the burns on either side were very still, the only movement there the tatters of flame worrying the biggest fallen logs.

his conscience was clear and he had faith in the essential goodness of the universe and so felt cradled by it.

I stood back of the new garden watching the sun touch the mountains and ruddle the turned dirt and the threads of water and I can say there was something moving inside that resembled a kind of happiness. I would never have named it. Not then. For fear. But I name it now.

I feel the same way about solitude as some people feel about the blessing of the church. It's the light of grace for me. I never close my door behind me without awareness that I'm carrying out an act of mercy toward myself.

apart from the grey smudge of a tanker or freighter on the horizon, the sea was empty.

On the wooded hillsides below, an owl hooted, heralding the first liquid trills of a nightingale, while in the air above, tiny bats dashed to and fro like fleeting splashes of shadow. Then, somewhere on a distant mountain farm, a dog barked a warning to imagined marauders skulking by his master's gate. Mallorca was preparing to sleep.

They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.

For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

Proud beasts have never trodden it; no lion has ever prowled over it.

He lies under the lotus plants, hidden among the reeds of the marsh.

The lotus plants conceal him in their shade; the willows of the brook surround him.

He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!

He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.