Sacred Silence

While standing in the kitchen one recent morning, I heard a curious, scurrying sound and poked my head out to check . . . Dozens of birds were skittering down the sloped awning over the back door! As I stepped all the way onto the porch, they exploded in a flurry. It was a great metaphor: One thought, like a single bird, “What was that sound?” and the next thing you know, a hundred thoughts fly out from that one, winging to who-knows-where!

This is the great challenge, isn't it -- to find our silence within the wild, scurrying modern world. Here’s the news on TV, here’s a bag of groceries to put away, here’s the car needing an oil change, and oh! there was that phone call I was supposed to make . . . We drive and cook and type on the computer. We bathe and eat and sleep. And through all of it, we are presented with invisible opportunities to Awaken by finding silence in this very moment. When I stop to find that silence, the moment opens up its mysterious beauty. Despite whatever busyness it may contain, I’ve learned that every moment arises from silence and also returns to it. I can outsmart my busy mind by remembering silence in the midst of activity. Even just the thought of silent stillness automatically quiets the mind, and then voila! It no longer wants to think. The mind just wants to relish the delicious inner silence.

When I find silence, I claim my true Self. I return to the heart of all life. All that's required is to listen, watch, and be aware. Everything else follows naturally. Without attention to simplicity, to the silent underpinning of the moment, I’m likely to flounder. So I return again and again to inner silence. I turn off the car radio, or listen to the quiet vibration just beneath the hum of voices in a meeting. When I find that silence, there’s a sigh of release! Aahh. . . It was there all the time, just waiting. Connecting with inner silence, I feel loved. By whom? By God, by the beneficence of the Universe, by the Light of my own soul. But it hardly matters how I name it. In that moment of silence, I am kissed by the Infinite. I stand in a spacious palace of Sacred Presence, and I am blessed.

May you claim the silence that vibrates beneath this moment
In this silence, may you enjoy the presence of your true self.