Finding our way to The Way one situation at a time. I don't know how great it will be, but I expect it will be interesting, and I look forward to it going on past all reason because wonder is just that way. Are you coming or not?
The right kind of silence is the one thing that will make the most difference-for-the-good-as-we-determine-good-in-our-life-over-time.
Silence rights the boat that is our life. Guides the way. Grounds us in the way that is the way for us. Uncovers the truth of who we are and what we are about. Restores us our balance and harmony. Connects and re-connects us with what matters most here and now. Puts us in sync the Tao, in the flow of doing what needs to be done, when, where and how it needs to be done.
A day without a minimum of twenty minutes of silence in our life is a day in which we failed to tune in, turn on, wake up, realize what is called for and serve our destiny as it needs to be served.
And no one ever tells us that. Just like no one ever instructs us in how to facilitate the right kind of silence. Which is the foundational reason the world is in the mess it is in--and which is the only way out of the mess "to the land of gentle breezes where peaceful waters flow" (Anne Murray).
The key word to the right kind of silence is disengagement. How disengaged can we be? How aware can we be of everything without being engaged by anything for twenty minutes once a day? How long can we live without being hooked by something? We live from one hook to another. As we learn to live disengaged for twenty minutes once a day, that ability begins to show itself throughout our life. And that makes all the difference.
I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing.
I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters, five granddaughters, one great granddaughter, and a great grandson on the way, within about ten minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything.
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