In 2018 my wife and I joined a meditation group called Heartspace. It is a simple group of persons from all walks of life who try to practice Christian meditation. Our spiritual director is a Benedictine monk from the Abbey of the Transfiguration in Bukidnon. We have monthly formations where we sit in the quiet and meditate.
January 28 was our first session for this year. Here is an anecdote our spiritual director shared with us. In one of his sessions, a participant asked, “what do I do with my silence?” And he replied, “Share your silence with others.”
When I heard that I said to myself, Wow. That hit me. Share your silence. Profound. Simple. But not so simple.
Take a look around, or better still listen around. So much noise, so much chaos. All screaming anger, fury, hatred. And most of all wailing fear. Oh yes, fear. Beyond the anger, the fury and the hatred is fear, always fear. Coated and disguised but fear nevertheless. Most people are terrified nowadays. Haunted by nightmarish dreams, tormented by relentless demons, hounded by what they have done, tortured by what they have not. All culminating in despair, in fear. That is why we see so much pain around.
The world is flooded with misery and what do suffering people do? They spew their anguish and their darkness. And how easy it is to do that. Very easy to be cruel, does not take much. And we wonder why there is so much filth, hatred, and gloom in the world. Does not take much to hurt. And yet when it comes to kindness and goodness, how difficult it is for us to share. Most of us would rather destroy than create. Most of us would wound than heal. We are tired and yet ironically we are tired of the very thing we have created. We are where we are because of the choices we have made. Yet we also know there is another way, a better way. But we do not take it, we cannot, perhaps because it is so difficult. That road is the higher road, the quiet road.
We can share our silence. Our quiet and our stillness we can give. We can give our beauty. It does not take much to smile, does it? But there is the revelation. We can only give what we have. To put it in another way, we cannot give what we do not have. How can we share our silence when there is turmoil within? How can we give peace when we engage in a daily war with ourselves? How can we smile when there is no sunshine in our world?
It takes time and effort to be kind. But not impossible. Next time you are faced with a choice between light and dark, choose light. Deliberately choose the light that you have within no matter how faint.
If we do that constantly that light will grow stronger. Share your silence because it does make a difference. And how do we find that silence?
Next time.