SHORT REFLECTION
“Let silence take you to the core of life.”
I had an American friend, a buddhist, and we often spoke together of SILENCE.
As we’d walk around the lakeshore and gardens in a retreat centre in Northern Ireland, where we met once or twice a year, he’d speak to me of silence as though it were his lover. Often he light-heartedly chided me for trying too hard to make or create silence. “You can’t”, he’d say, “SILENCE, like PEACE and JOY and LOVE, is always present. It is already and always here waiting for you. Just come as you are, sit into the silence, be still, be quiet and the SILENCE will do the rest”.
His words invariably reminded me of the words of Jeremiah, a prophet in Hebrew Scripture … “and if you come to me with all of your heart, you will find me here, already waiting for you”.
Michael died a number of years ago and though I miss him dearly, he left me with a precious gift. He introduced me to ‘Beloved Silence’. For that I will be eternally grateful. I wish that gift for you today.
May this retreat give you a precious gift that will last a lifetime.
“Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.”
QUESTIONS TO CONTEMPLATE
What do you most want to receive in the silence today?
What about that important to you?