From "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.
SILENCE
What interests me most about my experiment (having children make noise and then be silent) is the way in which making silence liberated the imagination of so many children. Very few wrote with any originality about making noise. Most of their images were cliches such as "we sound like a herd of elephants." But silence was another matter: here, their images often had a depth and maturity that was unlike anything else they wrote. One boy came up with an image of strength as being "as slow and silent as a tree," anothe wrote that "silence is me sleeping waiting to wake up. Slience is a tree spreading it branches to the sun." In a parochial school, one third grader's poem turned into a prayer: "Silence is spiders spinning their webs, it's like a silkworm making its silk. Lord, help me to know when to be silent." And in a tiny town in western North Dakota a little girl offered a gem of spiritual wisdom that I find myself returning to when my life becomes too noisy and distractions overwhelm me: "Silence reminds me to take my soul with me wherever I go."
Noriss' whole piece on silence is quite good. I wanted to share this piece because of the powerful images from those children. Silence is that experience of great imagination. Often when I am cutting my lawn (mega-noisy) I find that I retreat into the silence of my thoughts. It is a silence that lets me wander and flit through my head without any pressure to produce. The lawn is indeed being cut...but there is this internal journey that has my full attention. I remember having a person ask me if I ever took the time to hug a tree. He said it was really special for him to hug a big old tree that may have been around for more years than anyone he knew. The powerful silence of a tree reminding us of the steadfastness of our God in the face of anything that may come our way to disturb us is simply a gift of nature from which we can draw great encouragement.
Connection: During this day, make a note to yourself to mark the times of the day that bring you moments of silence. Those times come knocking throughout the day in many and various ways. There may also be moments that you carve out for yourself in a very intentional manner.
"Silence is spiders spinning their webs, it's like a silkworm making its silk. Lord, help me to know when to be silent." Amen
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