Sounds of silence…

Good Morning All!

Sounds of silence…Silent Night, Holy Night…Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent…silent partner…silent auction…silent prayer…deafening silence…silence is golden…breaking the silence…called out of silence into the cycle of sound and silence…I’ve just returned from participating in my Bethany Prayer Retreat; this time at Shalom House in the tiny community of Montpelier, VA, a 100 acre wooded area nestled at the end of a half-mile gravel road. The group has held my spot for 2 years, knowing I would return when I could…It’s such a wonderful experience to be among a small group of clergy friends from VA; MD; WVA and NC…to know that so much has happened in our lives since we were able to last meet and yet also knowing that the deep respect and love for God and for each other has only grown stronger and we simply picked up where we last left off...first sharing stories filled with hope and joy; pain and sorrow…the stuff of life, as we prepared to enter a world filled with almost 48 hours of silence. We’ve come a long way these last 7 years when we struggled on that very first retreat to make it through a mere 12 hours of silence.

The sounds of laughter, the intense listening and the expressions of sympathy and concern died down and we were called into silence in a time of worship. Dave prepared us for that evening’s rest with the words of Psalm 4:8, “I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O God, make me lie down in safety.” He also challenged us to greet the morning light, eager to enter God’s world in silence and to go “marveling.” Marveling is what Fred Craddock talks about doing with his family on Sunday afternoons as a child, riding through the countryside and “marveling” at the wonders of God all around them.

After the night’s rest I awakened eager to go marveling and marveling is exactly what I did. I engaged my different senses and became aware of so many little things going on in my world of silence…but soon discovering that silence simply meant not using spoken words and conversation…God’s world is hardly silent…the birds chirping and insects humming as they hovered over the pond...the crackling of the pine straw and dead leaves ‘neath my feet as I followed the path around the pond…fish jumpin’ and me without my fishing pole; dogs barking; cattle mooing; faint construction noises in the distance. But once I was able to clear my mind of the clutter of thoughts and my constant Covenant “to-do” list, I became in tune with my surroundings and began to be fully engaged in my oneness with God in God’s world.

Going marveling in the woods soon brought me to a small wooden bench. And while I wasn’t yet tired enough to rest, I accepted its gracious invitation to come and sit a spell. It wasn’t long before a female Downy woodpecker landed on a dead tree nearby. I became intrigued as I watched her find the exact spots to use her beak like a miniature jack-hammer, drilling out insects for her morning snack. I then became aware that her pecking wasn’t making the usual loud, rat-a-tat sounds…the spots where she stopped to peck seemed to be made of soft wood…and I marveled at how she too knew this was a day of silence. J And then, “what to my wondering eyes should appear?” I looked down on the ground in front of me and saw a most wonderful cluster of pink Lady Slippers…given their particular location, I surely would have missed seeing them had I continued walking past this area…

The art of marveling isn’t confined to silent retreats or Sunday afternoon rides. You can marvel at the wonders of God anytime and anywhere…Take even the briefest of moments to stop and maybe even sit a spell in the midst of all that tugs on your time and energy to allow God to surprise you…Let’s go marveling… Blessings, Joanne