Silence

Tags

clamor, election, invitation, love, noise, Olympics, phenomenon, present, quietness, Robert Sardello, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Now that the Olympics are over I will have to find that good “brotherly [& sisterly] love” feeling in another way. I doubt I will find it on television where political messages will be flooding the airwaves in earnest for the next few months. I will be worrying about that, having just read an article about how many people now take in what they hear without reflecting on the validity of the message. Some wild claims will be made that ought to be followed up with references but probably won’t. As I finished the article, my eyes fell (honestly!) on the book Silence by Robert Sardello, which I picked up looking for solace. I read the following that is for me a good reason to return to silence as often as possible today to find out what I’m thinking, where it comes from, and how I feel about it. Just maybe it will also allow me to come back to trusting in a deeper way that God is in charge of the world.

Our choosing to live in the noise of our thoughts and emotions – within the incessant clamor around us – happens almost without our recognition…[Silence] does not go with our hectic lives, with what must be done every day, and with our felt need to accomplish something…But Silence was here before anything else, and it envelops everything else. It is the most primary phenomenon of existence, both palpably something and seemingly nothing. Silence is prior to sound, not the cessation of sound. It is already present. If we drop into quietness for just a moment, we feel the presence of Silence as an invitation.