Silent and Minimal

A New Dawn, cold wax and oil with collage, by Donna Watson

It all happens in silence.  The way

light happens in the eye.

Love unites bodies.

They go on

filling each other with silence.

-- Jamie Sabines, Pieces of Shadow

photo image by Donna Watson

"There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing.  There is the silence that comes with the morning in the forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city.  There is the silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same.  The the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, and silence of doubt. "   Beryl Markham, West with the Night

photo image by Donna Watson

"There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, for from anything that has answered to the need of man, for pleasure or for work.  This kind of silence can speak."  Beryl Markham, West with the Night

photo image by Donna Watson

"Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay.  Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows.  It is a soundless echo."

---  Beryl Markham, West with the Night

photo image by Donna Watson

Silence.  It has a sound, a fullness.

It's heavy with sigh of tree,

and space between breaths.

It's ripe with pause between birdsong

and crash of surf.

It's golden they say.

But no one tells us it is additive.

-- Angela Long

photo image by Donna Watson

"Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands."  Pico Iyer

photo image by Donna Watson

"Silence is essential for deep transformation.  It allows the practice of conscious breathing to become deep and effective.  Like still water that reflects things as they are, the calming silence helps us

to see things more clearly; to be in deeper contact with ourselves and those around us."

--- Thich Nhat Hanh

photo image by Donna Watson

I go to nature be be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.

-- John Burroughs