Stillness Speaks Book Previews

How To Embrace Gift Of Endings? Pause, Rest, & Be, Octavia Raheem

by Sanjiv Manifest | Apr 3, 2025

endings: “… Imagine you are sitting before an ancient river. Listen, imagine you can hear the river song. Vision, see the water flow over rocks. Feel a breeze touch your hands and heart. Taste the cool freshness of the air on your lips. What ending would you like to offer to the river? Turn your palms up. Reach your hands forward. Offer something to the river. Do this as many times as you need to. May you be free and lighter as you make this offering and face this end. …” ~ Octavia Raheem

Indeed, a beautiful way to welcome and/or meet endings … but before we get into that …

At times, the Universe simply demands pausing, resting, and looking within – regardless of “life’s ongoing imperatives” – by bringing health issues to the fore. This past March has largely been just that …

Last week our health issues simply prevented posting the weekly Wednesday post despite several being in the works … and this week is a similar but somewhat different story: a delay from Wednesday to today/Thursday plus more:

Had planned on posting a previously selected chapter of Octavia’s book, Pause, Rest Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change … but while composing the post, another of her prayer caught my attention … that seemed more apropos to the “moment” … to our current times of the ever-present “turbulence here in the USA and also the world” … a time characterized by endings …

An “inner nudge” arose to support the meeting of endings instead of the previously selected chapter … plus couldn’t help but be aware of Rumi’s reminder that “all plans are subject to revision” 🙂 …

So, in this concluding part 2 of the 2-part series on Octavia’s book, we offer A Prayer for Endings …

… in Part 1 we considered A Prayer for All of Our Beginnings … which is … a cultivation of … resting and going within …

This post’s opening text is the precursor to the chapter: A Prayer for Endings …

And, here’s an excerpt from Octavia’s Introduction … which will give you another perspective on the book …

“… For so long, I’ve relied solely on the trinity of hard work, grit, and relentlessness.

This holy trinity has served me well and, at the same time, left me weary and tired. My little slingshot is broken. The handle of my sword is worn. I put down my armor. In this place of bone-deep exhaustion, I surrender and lay down. There is a time and place to push, hustle, and grind. I’ve always lived my life in that way and from that place. Perhaps you have too. Yet, here I am in a new place. To access the wisdom needed now, I must be still. A movement is coming, and, first, we must be still.

Now is no ordinary moment in time. Now is a place of startling individual and collective endings. Now is the space before something else becomes. Now is both a promise and fulfillment of fresh beginnings. The sacred cycle of being human seems to be speeding up. For many, we assume the remedy is to match that speed. As we become more and more exhausted, anxious, and disillusioned with trying to keep up with an inhumane pace, it is apparent that all of the battling, the swiftness, and the forging ahead brought me—brought us—collectively to this moment.

This moment where we are perhaps finally ready to listen for a new rhythm and tune.

Listen. We are descending into quiet. Being thrown into it, really. I hear a sound so striking in its silence that it has displaced us all. It has put us in our place.

Human.
Be. Still. …”

This series is part of our ongoing Shambhala Publications series that offers substantive previews of selections from Shambhala Publications new and classic titles …

All italicized text here is adapted from Pause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change, © 2022 by Octavia F. Raheem. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO. Shambhala Publications has also generously offered a free downloadable PDF of the Table of Contents (link is at the bottom of the post).

You can purchase the book at Shambhala Publications or Amazon.

A Prayer for Endings

God of endings,

Even as we face uncertainty, we thank you for walking with us across the river of time. Where we believe all is lost and everything is over, show us how the obstacle is our way. We trust that the endings we face will not end us. We know that some endings signify a much-needed change has come. As humans, we want so terribly to hold on, even when we have prayed for a shift and it arrives at our door. Help us to turn the knob, cross the threshold, and finally close the door on the places that can no longer serve us. Help us to let go and surrender to the dissolution that many endings bring.

If we must fall apart, let the shattering reveal the contents of our hearts, the wisdom that resides there. When we meet endings that break us, let the crevice that opens within point us toward our souls’ expansion or at least a ray of hope. When we believe our story is complete and done, be the author of our courage, faith, and truth. May we continue. Hold us and our futures through it all. Be an everlasting arm that we can rest upon and a place for us to restore. Do not let us forget that endings are often brave beginnings dressed in the scariest costume.

~ Octavia Raheem

All italicized text here is adapted from Pause, Rest, Be: Stillness Practices for Courage in Times of Change, © 2022 by Octavia F. Raheem. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO.

You can purchase the book at Shambhala Publications or Amazon.

And, click here for the free, downloadable PDF of the Table of Contents.