November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

Anne Strader

Greetings and gratitude, dear friends! As Thanksgiving approaches and we are reminded of our many blessings, you, our community at large, immediately come to mind. In our noisy world, how difficult it sometimes seems to find the silence that feeds our souls! We are surrounded by so many bells and buzzers, alerts and reminders -- telephones, doorbells, computer prompts and all kinds of warning beeps, the roar of traffic, radio and TV. How comforting, then, to think of all of you "out there” and recall that we all carry within us the silence we so need. We can meet together in that silent inner space at any time, wait together for the one sound that matters: that still, small voice that speaks always to those who take the time to listen. Let us gather there often.

When we center ourselves in silence

Gunilla Norris | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

We do not need to be experts or geniuses to remember that all of existence is precious. We do not need cathedrals to remind ourselves to experience the sacred. We need only to be deeply respectful of what is fundamentally true; and that is what we rediscover when we center ourselves in silence.

~ from INVITING SILENCE by Gunilla Norris

No Poet like the great Grace of Silence

Richard W. Bachtold | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

There is no dark like a night
replete with the mystery of death.
There is no truth like a fleeting wind.
There is no lover like a lonely tree.
There is no friend like a blade
of faithful grass.
There is no light like a solitary beam
from the sun.
There is no poem like an evolving earth
and no Poet like the great Grace
of Silence.

~ from POEMS OF THE SACRED UNKNOWN by Richard W. Bachtold

The wise silence

R.W. Emerson | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

Within us is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, the eternal One.

~ by R.W. Emerson

Our service to the world might be simply to keep a place where there is no noise

Thomas Merton | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

Since noise is increasing in all directions, the psychology of silence has taken on a special meaning. We are already so adapted to an abundance of screeching sound that we are surprised when stillness suddenly envelops us. Not that this happens very often. We begin to see that the whole question of our relation to the world, both positive and negative, centers in something like silence. So our service to the world might be simply to keep a place where there is no noise, where people can be silent together.

~ from THE SPRINGS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton

Silence receives too little appreciation

Florida Scott-Maxwell | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

Silence receives too little appreciation, silence being a higher, rarer thing than sound. Silence implies inner riches, and a savouring of impressions. Babies value this too. They lie silent, and one can suppose them asleep but look closer, and with eyes wide open they are sparkling like jewels in the dark. Silence is beyond many of us, and hardly taken into account as one of life's favours. It can be sacred. Its implications are unstatable. It has a superiority that makes the interruption of the spoken word crude, rendering small what was infinite.

~ from THE MEASURE OF MY DAYS by Florida Scott-Maxwell, thanks to Craig Burlington

In the busyness of this day grant me a stillness of seeing

J. Philip Newell | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

In the busyness of this day
grant me a stillness of seeing, O God.
In the conflicting voices of my heart
grant me a calmness of hearing.
Let my seeing and hearing
my words and my actions
be rooted in a silent certainty of your presence.
Let my passions for life
and the longings for justice that stir within me
be grounded in the experience of your stillness.
Let my life be rooted in the ground of your peace, O God,
let me be rooted in the depths of your peace.

~ from CELTIC BENEDICTION by J. Philip Newell

Can I weave a nest of silence

May Sarton | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

The phoebe sits on her nest
Hour after hour,
Day after day,
Waiting for life to burst out
From under her warmth.
Can I weave a nest of silence,
weave it of listening,
listening, listening,
Layer upon layer?
But one must first become small,
Nothing but a presence,
Attentive as a nesting bird,
Proffering no slightest wish
Toward anything
that might happen or be given,
Only the warm, faithful waiting,
contained in one’s smallness.
Beyond the question,
the silence.
Before the answer,
the silence.

~ by May Sarton, thanks to Theodora Rendlen

God is the friend of silence

Mother Teresa | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence.

~ by Mother Teresa, thanks to Felicia Sawyer

I enter silence as if I were to open a door and enter a room

Marv Hiles | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

I am discovering that Silence is not a concept, an idea, not the familiar "absence of sound." Instead, I "enter" silence as if I were to open a door, cross a threshold, and enter a room. Silence is substantive, tactile, like material. I feel its layers. It has depth like water, shallow or deep. I immerse myself in it. It is like water, supportive. I lay back in it. It is buoyant or it can draw me down. I think about whether or not it has a bottom, a ground. Perhaps its bottom turns into a top at some point, just as going east eventually leads west. I feel secure in the way it totally envelops. It is pleasurable yet mysterious.

Mark Van Doren wrote about "the [silent] web of the world, how thick and how thin, ancient and full of grace." What a lovely vocation for me to spend the rest of my years playing with the secrets of that shining place.

~ by Marv Hiles in "The Way Through” No. 31, Winter 2009

The mirror of silence

Paramahansa Yogananda | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

God is the mirror of silence in which all creation is reflected.

~ by Paramahansa Yogananda, thanks to Barbara Yatsevich

Silence touches us in so many ways

John Lane | November 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 10)

Silence touches us in so many ways: as something which offers sanctuary and tranquility, as something which brings us into touch with the inner depths which elude us in the hurly-burly of our everyday lives, as a source of joy, as an inspiration for art, literature or music, and because it awakens us to the present moment which can only be fully experienced with a mind that is free of preconceptions. These encounters can be the source of a wonderful clarity.

~ From THE SPIRIT OF SILENCE by John Lane