A rare commodity of our political climate today is quietude. And because it is a rarity, the silence is worth a great deal.
The noise, literal and figurative, that surrounds us, is relentless. Day in and day out we hustle to have our voice heard above the din. When there are problems to solve and decisions to be made, we brainstorm, arrive at consensus, take a poll, caucus, look at a focus group through a one-way mirror and hope for a majority vote.
We literally don’t take a quiet time to withdraw and think for ourselves!
Imagine what it would be like if we turned off all the noise that surrounds us and spent the day without responding automatically to outside distractions or better yet not talking to anyone! In short order, we would recognize there is a big difference between hearing and actually listening. Not just to the din that exists outside of us but to the internal voice that exists inside of us.
Silence leads to stillness, and it is there in the space of peace and calm where you can hear all that is important. What a paradox. In the nothing there is everything.
I recommend you set aside time for yourself and give silence a chance. If you’ve ever tried snorkeling or scuba diving, you’ll know what I mean when I describe the stillness that surrounds you as you dive deeper into the ocean of your very existence. As the hours pass in silence, extrasensory powers of perception open the way to another world existent beyond the normal narrative.
It is in this place of quietude where you find resolution to the unanswerable questions that data and logic and millions of social media entries cannot provide. In stillness, with the jarring decimals silenced, the core of the issue is heard as a kind of energetic resonance that you alone can discern. You find answers in the stillness.
It is thought that you can find G-d there as well, as attested by silent meditations held for days on end at ashrams all around the world.
That is a more difficult premise to put forward, but I can understand the belief. In an old church in Zihuatanejo, the chapel on Mackinaw Island, the cathedral in Quebec City, I sat quietly lost in time and felt the presence of an unseen current of energy that was not coming from the whirring fans.
Hearing our own true voice is like finding a loyal friend. You can always trust that the decisions made are what is best for you… and you are never alone.
