Silence is uncomfortable, unusual, quirky. We ponder, we pause, but can we be quiet. Can we sit, in our silence. I have studied Yoga, I have taken meditation classes. I like to be alone. I walk, bike, swim , garden: all solitary by choice. I like quiet. But silence is a whole different quiet.
I sat in the Hospital last week with a friend. I sat in silence and let my friend talk. I let her talk because she needed to. Her choices are not mine, so I keep my mouth shut. I try to do this with Love and Compassion. So today, my friend kept her mouth shut . We were together in silence. No judgement on either side. I'm ok with that. I guess all those classes and walks by myself and being OK with the quiet paid off today. And for the ability to be quiet, to keep quiet, I Am Grateful.
Peace & Love Colleen
A poem for reflection by Thomas Merton
In Silence
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
to speak your
name.
Listen
to the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
are you? Whose
silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
are you (as these stones
are quiet). Do not
think of what you are
still less of
what you may one day be.
Rather
be what you are (but who?)
be the unthinkable one
you do not know.
O be still, while
you are still alive,
and all things live around you
speaking (I do not hear)
to your own being,
speaking by the unknown
that is in you and in themselves.
“I will try, like them
to be my own silence:
and this is difficult. The whole
world is secretly on fire. The stones
burn, even the stones they burn me.
How can a man be still or
listen to all things burning?
How can he dare to sit with them
when all their silence is on fire?”
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