Life-Giving Silence

I love words.  I love their rich meaning, their power to communicate deep emotion and their ability to create life-size word pictures.  Perhaps because I also understand the power of words to inflict grave injury upon another, I am all the more committed to the life-giving realm of words.

Ruth Haley Barton in her book, "Invitation to Solitude and Silence", says that "to fill a book with words on moving beyond words into solitude and silence is a daunting task..."

This is somewhat how I feel as I attempt express what it was like to spend a string of days in silence several weeks ago.  How do I put into words an experience in which words pale to describe the unfolding minutes, hours and days of silence?

Powerful

but with a power beyond explanation

Beautiful

as in nothing I have ever taken in before

Other "world-life"

a sense that this was a cocoon-like wholly safe existence in some other realm.

Life-giving

as though this fullness of silence completed me

And yet this sequestered time laden in richness defys even these explanations; only in living in the silence can one grasp its depth.

To share meals with others but never say a word; only the sounds of cutlery touching plates and chairs moving in and out and the workings of the kitchen in the background

To sit beside another in the Retreat House gazing out windows on an expansive picturesque view; only hearing footsteps or the opening and closing of doors

Passing strangers in halls and the outdoors without eye contact simply being taken in by surroundings, one's own self and my Creator

The complete lack of knowledge of any world beyond this acreage

The absence of any knowledge of the people around me; no words or conversations to take in and process and respond to.

This endless freedom of responsibility to or for anyone

All this...and for me as an empath, how completely emptied I was so that I might be filled

Three days and nights of hearing only the voice of my God; of knowing an intimacy and safety with Him alone.  Oh the depth of the stillness

But I am home now, back to this existence of noise and clutter and "life" and seemingly endless responsibilities.  Each day an exercise in seeking to find new ways to live in stillness and quiet in the here and now.  I want to learn how to live a quiet and still life "in this world".  How patiently He guides my steps.