• Home
  • RELIGION IS NOT. . .PART I
  • THE SEARCHER-SEEKER

Searcher-Seeker

Musings of a lifelong searcher-seeker

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« CHOOSING – ‘SILENCE’ OR NOISE, PART I. . .
CHOOSING – ‘SILENCE’ OR NOISE, PART III. . . »

CHOOSING – ‘SILENCE’ OR NOISE, PART II. . .

September 26, 2020 by Searcher Seeker

Good morning Gentle Reader; let us continue our exploration. 

In addition to what I shared with you in PART I, I am also able to find and enter a place of ‘Silence’ when I set aside (or ignore) all that is artificial or invented in the ‘world of sound’.  For example, I focus on observing and listening to that which nature presents me.  The great poet John Keats captures this when he writes:

I stood tiptoe upon a little hill. The air was cooling and so very still…  And then there crept a little noiseless noise among the leaves born of the very sight that silence heaves… Linger a while upon some bending planks that lean against a streamlet’s rushy banks… How silent comes the water round that bend. Not the minutest whisper does it send.

For me, this experience enables me to set aside the artificial noises and enables me to open a space for silence to enter into my very being and find a place to rest a while. 

I grew up in the Nature that permeates Wisconsin.  Nature is alive with sound – the music of the wind and birds, the creaking of tree limbs, the sound of water caressing the shore.  These sounds are different from – and more desirable than – the screeching of tires, the blasting of horns, the vibration that a semi-truck generates as it lumbers past you.  For me, Lord Byron captures nature when he writes:

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods.  There is rapture on the lonely shore. There is society where none intrudes, by the deep Sea, and music in its roar; I love not man less, but Nature more.                                             

In the early 1970s folk music was on the rise – in some places it had truly risen to new heights.  I became friends with a trio of folk singers, their collective name was ‘Chestnut Dawn.’  On one occasion I was invited to join the three of them and a few others into their sound-proof studio.  We gathered together for a long conversation.  We prepared ourselves by sitting in silence for twenty minutes.  As the silence grew we became aware of the sounds that the building was making – we heard the walls shift, we heard popping and cracking as the building moved.  It was if the very building was restless or it was striving to take a step or two. 

As I recall this experience of sitting in silence I am reminded of the words of Thomas Merton:

Be still. Listen to the stones of the wall. Be silent, they try to speak your Name. Listen to the living walls. Who are you? Who are you? Whose Silence are You? Who (the quiet) are you (as the stones are quiet)?              

‘Silence’ speaks out of the world of walls.  Thomas Merton was a Trappist Monk.  As a Monk he was charged with discerning what was useless and harmful from what was use-full and nurturing and strove to choose the latter two and ‘in all things glorify God.’ 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Uncategorized |

  • Recent Posts

    • EMBRACE OUR IMPERFECTION — OUR HUMANNESS
    • A QUESTION I OFFER FOR REFLECTION
    • THINKING ABOUT CHANGE
    • FIVE COMMANDMENTS, PART II
    • FIVE COMMANDMENTS, PART I
  • Archives

    • August 2022 (6)
    • July 2022 (8)
    • June 2022 (15)
    • May 2022 (15)
    • April 2022 (15)
    • March 2022 (15)
    • February 2022 (13)
    • January 2022 (13)
    • December 2021 (15)
    • November 2021 (10)
    • October 2021 (13)
    • September 2021 (10)
    • August 2021 (14)
    • July 2021 (13)
    • June 2021 (15)
    • May 2021 (15)
    • April 2021 (14)
    • March 2021 (15)
    • February 2021 (14)
    • January 2021 (14)
    • December 2020 (14)
    • November 2020 (16)
    • October 2020 (14)
    • September 2020 (15)
    • August 2020 (12)
    • July 2020 (14)
    • June 2020 (13)
    • May 2020 (12)
    • April 2020 (12)
    • March 2020 (11)
    • February 2020 (12)
    • January 2020 (13)
    • December 2019 (11)
    • November 2019 (12)
    • October 2019 (14)
    • September 2019 (11)
    • August 2019 (12)
    • July 2019 (10)
    • June 2019 (11)
    • May 2019 (12)
    • April 2019 (15)
    • March 2019 (13)
    • February 2019 (14)
    • January 2019 (10)
    • December 2018 (12)
    • November 2018 (10)
    • October 2018 (10)
    • September 2018 (7)
    • August 2018 (9)
    • July 2018 (12)
    • June 2018 (10)
    • May 2018 (8)
    • April 2018 (11)
    • March 2018 (12)
    • February 2018 (13)
    • January 2018 (12)
    • December 2017 (10)
    • November 2017 (11)
    • October 2017 (13)
    • September 2017 (14)
    • August 2017 (12)
    • July 2017 (12)
    • June 2017 (14)
    • May 2017 (14)
    • April 2017 (14)
    • March 2017 (14)
    • February 2017 (12)
    • January 2017 (13)
    • December 2016 (15)
    • November 2016 (15)
    • October 2016 (12)
    • September 2016 (12)
    • August 2016 (13)
    • July 2016 (9)
    • June 2016 (14)
    • May 2016 (14)
    • April 2016 (14)
    • March 2016 (15)
    • February 2016 (14)
    • January 2016 (15)
    • December 2015 (15)
    • November 2015 (15)
    • October 2015 (15)
    • September 2015 (15)
    • August 2015 (13)
    • July 2015 (11)
    • June 2015 (13)
    • May 2015 (11)
    • April 2015 (15)
    • March 2015 (15)
    • February 2015 (13)
    • January 2015 (16)
    • December 2014 (14)
    • November 2014 (15)
    • October 2014 (14)
    • September 2014 (12)
    • August 2014 (10)
    • July 2014 (13)
    • June 2014 (11)
    • May 2014 (14)
    • April 2014 (14)
    • March 2014 (16)
    • February 2014 (13)
    • January 2014 (14)
    • December 2013 (14)
    • November 2013 (14)
    • October 2013 (14)
    • September 2013 (13)
    • August 2013 (14)
    • July 2013 (16)
    • June 2013 (13)
    • May 2013 (23)
    • April 2013 (29)
    • March 2013 (31)
    • February 2013 (28)
    • January 2013 (31)
    • December 2012 (29)
    • November 2012 (30)
    • October 2012 (31)
    • September 2012 (30)
    • August 2012 (31)
    • July 2012 (31)
    • June 2012 (30)
    • May 2012 (31)
    • April 2012 (30)
    • March 2012 (31)
    • February 2012 (16)
  • Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 45 other followers

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Searcher-Seeker
    • Join 45 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Searcher-Seeker
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: