From the Heart: In the Silence...

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature—trees, flowers, grass—grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” ~Mother Teresa


What is it about silence that seems to intimidate a human being so?

What is it about a pregnant pause, a quiet moment before the next thought, a lull in conversation, or being alone in an empty house with only the company of oneself that makes a person stir with discomfort, wriggle in their seat, and experience a need to fill the gap with some sort of sound or distraction?

Is it that the mystery contained within the silence is too much for us to bear? Is it that we fear finding out what is inside of it, what it carries, what it holds?

Is it that we are trepidatious about hearing our own genuine voice—the voice that cannot lie to us—rise up like a quiet force within and whisper with ferocity all of those things that we need to hear but are not comfortable with receiving?

Is it that anticipation builds in the silence, and because we do not know what to anticipate, we are frightened?

Silence holds a power over us, and we try every which way to keep it at bay, keep it to a minimum, keep it from coming in too strong, coming in for too long...

And so we silence the silence.

We silence it with our addictions, with our devices, and with other people.

We put a stop to it, we chatter through it, we fill it with meaningless words, fill it with distractions and redirections towards something comfortable and non-threatening, something we seemingly have some control over.

But what if silence was our friend?

What if it is a precious gift meant to connect us to what is real, and deep, and life-changing, and this is what we actually fear?

It is in the silence where authenticity is revealed, where thoughts, wonderments, reflections and poetry originate and flow from...

It is in the silence where discomfort comes to the surface, where we hear the groaning of our soul, where we make contact with God and glimpse our potential...

It is in the silence where our mind is free to wander and run and come back with something of substance and meaning to grab a hold of and to do something real with...

For it is in the silence—in the mystery—where we gestate, grow, and develop.

In the silence is where we first hear the voice of the mother and the father—the Creator—speak life into our being and reveal our purpose and show us our path.

What if the next time there was silence we welcomed it with open arms?

What if we allowed it to linger, to stay as long as it liked, and took advantage of the courage that it could help to develop within us if we didn't push it away?

After all, the only way to discover what the silence holds is to welcome it in...

Taste what's good and pass it on.

Ingrid