"Remain perfectly still"

I was interested that the December edition of Reading Room News (http://redcliffe.christianscienceaustralia.net.au) made mention of the value of stillness*.

I have been reading some of the works of Ian Idriess, an Australian writer of things Australian. He was a Light Horse man in the First World War, serving in Gallipolli and the Middle East. He kept a diary all through the his wartime experiences; an invaluable record I believe.

They were in the Sinai – think desert sand, palm oases, heat in the day, cold in the night. Remember they are horsemen. I will quote from his book The Desert Column (Angus & Robertson Publishers,

1986):

(1916) May 5^th – German taubes (early German monoplanes) are a damned nuisance. Almost daily they drone over the oasis, seeking a target to lay eggs. Our outpost on 383 generally see them miles away with their glasses. They ring up the regiment and instantly the oasis springs to life. Every man rushes his horse, leaps on and gallops straight out into the desert in a thundering scatter of six hundred horses. The taubes have never surprised us yet. They haven't scored a single casualty. And, a curious fact, they can't see us when we remain perfectly still. We have proved this from experience and captured orders. It is curiously triumphant feeling, a feeling with a delicious little scornful thrill, holding your horse motionless and gazing up at the ominous metalled bird flying so low that you can distinctly see the hooded heads of pilot and observer gazing down, and yet though hundreds of men are watching them they can't see a single thing on which to loose their bombs – so long as we remain scattered and still. (Page 416. There are similar references on pages 427 and 449.)

Of course, my reference is Ps. 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

It is instructive to know that the preceding verse reads, “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.”

Joyce Voysey

* see Your 12 Steps to a Stress-free Christmas (https://www.health4thinkers.com/)

 Here is Step 10:

"Peace interludes. Pausing for moments of mental stillness can make all the difference, even transform your day. Be honestly aware of your thoughts and when they start going round in circles or racing in a wrong direction steer them back to that place of spiritual poise. “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” (Mary Baker Eddy)"