We have not been raised to cultivate a sense of Mystery. We may even see the unknown as an insult to our competence, a
personal failing. Seen this way, the unknown becomes a challenge to action. But Mystery does not require action;
Mystery requires our attention. Mystery requires that we listen and become open. When we meet with the unknown in
this way, we can be touched by a wisdom that can transform our lives.
~ Rachel Naomi Remen in MY GRANDFATHER'S BLESSINGS
I am to LISTEN. I am finding it a hard discipline: Listen to every word that is not said. Listen for silences. I have become insensitive to the power of words because I hear and see too many of them. I don't say to myself, "don't listen to words." I am already a past-master of that. I say, "listen to the silence." And I discover this: because silence seems empty of content I cannot place myself in relation to it, and therefore, I cannot place myself outside it. It is a world I enter, not a world I observe. Silent people bear this out: they seem to carry a world with them, while the unsilent always seem to be scurrying in search of one.
~ from TAKE NOTHING FOR THE JOURNEY by Donagh O'Shea
