Emilie Cocquerel

Emilie Cocquerel Instagram – The quiet out here. I clutch at it. I want to bottle it up and keep it with me forever. But I know that the quiet of each acreage I have slept on during this trip is not mine to hoard but borrow and wear like a coat I must give back. I know because every place I have stayed has loaned me a different texture of quiet. And you soon learn that quiet can have as many flavours as wines or types of fruit. More probably. And they are all fleeting. By its very nature, no matter what life I lead, the moment of quiet will always be fleeting. All of life is borrowed. So don’t clutch. Let it come. Leave. And come back again soon.
I am reminded of the last day at a Vipassana retreat. I observed ten days of noble silence, with nine hours of meditation a day. It was the hardest, most beautiful thing I’d ever done. I sat opposite my meditation teacher, Susan, on my final day. I was crying again. I cried so much in that ten days I learnt how to cry and meditate concurrently. Zen Pro Plus.
“How do I keep it?”, I asked her.
Confused she looked at me “the Practice?”.
“No, the peace. This feeling. The quiet that I have found”.
She responded with the answer I wanted the least.
“Just one hour – twice a day”.
As if internal peace was a sourdough bread recipe, and not the making of de-identifying from every aspect of your life. Undoing stitches in my mind’s eye of fabrics I had been wearing since birth. Righto Susan.
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My friends, followers, countrymen,
I am doing my second round of teacher training. I can’t wait to step into this world with anyone even remotely curious. I vow not to make meditation a place of woo woo magic or for only the blessed few who have ‘time’. I believe meditation should be reserved for absolutely everyone. As we all have a basic human right to sit with ourselves and simply be. Treasures lie here. If you hold any curiosity to deepen your relationship with yourself, your sleep, your loved ones, or make some small space for quiet – I’d love to sit beside you at some point. Have a chat.
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Susan was right by the way. You can take it with you. Twice a day, in fact. | Posted on 25/May/2024 08:34:13