For Today, the Gift of Silence

Dear Reader,

Sometimes silence says it all. Today is one of those days.

My moments of silence today were at 8:46a.m. EDT and 9:03a.m. EDT, the times when two planes hit the towers of the World Trade Center.

When I woke up this morning, I felt disconnected from those events of eighteen years ago. Then I looked up the timeline for the day, and sat in silence for those two key moments.

In silence, my heart was full.

The old saying states that “Silence is golden,” usually meaning that remaining silent is sometimes better than speaking. In fact, the full saying is more like “Speech is silver, silence is golden,” which I never realized.

The poet Thomas Carlyle first translated the saying into English from German in 1831, in “Sartor Resartus.”  A character says, “Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together, that at length they may emerge, full-formed and majestic, into the daylight of Life…” The rest of the passage focuses on the danger of babbling, and the benefits of silence, concluding, “Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity.”

Beautiful, isn’t it?

I find all I need in the very first words, “Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together…”

Two years ago today, I gave myself the gift of silence and restarted my meditation practice. I saw it also as a gift that would help deepen my contribution to others.

Try giving yourself the gift of silence, dear reader. It may feel a little scary or uncomfortable at first, or even for a while. But I guarantee that if you stick with it, great things will fashion themselves together within you.

I honor your loving heart,

John