"Enjoy the Silence"

After nearly three years of inaction on this blog, I've decided it's time once again for me to engage my creative self and my passion for writing, and hopefully bless a few people in the process.  Ironically, after these three years of "silence" in the blogosphere, my first post is about the significance of not saying anything.

Yesterday, the topic of the need for silence came up in three separate conversations: with my spiritual director, with a friend, and with my colleague.  In all three conversations, I was reminded of just how counterintuitive it is for me simply to be still--especially when others are present--and allow for silence to exist.

I'm sure part of this is due to the current state of our culture, in which chaos and noise rule.  Never mind radio, TV, and computers.  Smart phones (or I-phones) bring the constant distraction, the constant engagement with a cacophony of media, right to our fingertips. 

But I shouldn't blame our culture.  The reality is that when my life becomes overwhelmed with emotional triggers and internal noise, I feel a compulsive (or perhaps defensive) desire to speak when I really should be silent.  In those moments, what comes out of my mouth is rarely grace-filled and almost never edifying to others.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I should have bit my tongue...

Even when my own internal life is not turbulent and overwhelmed, I wonder if I give full credence to the role that silence plays in forming us as human beings.  Silence can bring amazing healing not only to our emotional lives but to our physical lives as well.  It can lower our heart rates, calm our nervous system, and ease tension in our muscles.  It can, if we allow it, bring a holistic sense of well-being that is absolutely essential for genuine human flourishing.

Years ago, Jewish philosopher Abraham Heschel wrote a penetrating spiritual work entitled The Sabbath.  He highlights the fact that after six days of creation, Scripture tells us that "God rested on the seventh day." 

However, Heschel follows many ancient rabbis who maintain that God's rest does not mean that He was inactive on the seventh day.  He still created, and what he created was menuha -- a rich Hebrew word that means tranquility, peace, rest, and silence. 

What this profound thought says to me is that silence does not merely happen.  

Silence is something that must be created intentionally. 

Silence is not simply the absence of noise, chaos, and work. 

It is the presence of peace and tranquility.

In fact, I would go further and state that silence is Presence itself.  It is simply and solely the acknowledgement that you are who you are, and that you are receptive to whatever the world (and even Someone beyond the world) might offer to you. 

May we all have the wisdom to follow God's example and create menuha in our lives.  And as Depeche Mode once intoned, "Enjoy the silence..."