Everything we need for growing into a full, rich relationship with God is already available in our lives. We need to pray, stay open, and not become discouraged. A spiritual journey is not a competitive event; we can all be on a spiritual quest. God comes to each of us in the native language of our soul. Gradually the language grows and expands, but no one grows in just the same way as someone else. We need to accept ourselves as we are and keep ourselves open to being changed and shaped by a life lived in growing intimacy with God.
~ from JEWISH SPIRITUAL GUIDANCE by Carol Ochs and Kerry M. Olitzky
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
