SILENCE AS PRESENCE

Many people are very uncomfortable with silence. It is interpreted as loneliness, isolation or disconnection. However, others seek silence as a way to maintain their equilibrium of heart and spirit. For the first group, silence is almost a threat and for the other it is a treat and retreat.

Anne D. LeClaire writes, “Our spirit has an instinct for silence. Every soul innately yearns for stillness, for a space, a garden where we can till, sow, reap, and rest, and by doing so come to a deeper sense of self and our place in the universe. Silence is not an absence but a presence. Not an emptiness but repletion. A filling up.”

It seems a little exaggerated that “every soul innately yearns for stillness” but once our hearts and minds have been stilled and have found tranquility and peace, then silence is a presence and not an absence.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jesus