This was inspired and so helpful! I struggle often with when to speak up or out, and when to keep silent. Much silence is brought about by fear. Fear of being wrong or making others who matter disapprove. Fear of feeling foolish. Thank you for giving me a little more perspective and courage, both in the silence and in the words.
Thank you so very much. You have a way of articulating what I am feeling, but do not possess the gift you have to describe the emotions. I am choking in the silence of our Congressional leaders. I can not reconcile in my heart the inability to discern facts. I am reading the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. It feels to me like the devil is all around us....In the violence, the division, the "keeping them away from the facts". It is a very interesting yet troubling book during this time in our world.
I think it was Edward Deming (spelling?) who said (and I'm paraphrasing, not quoting) that if people want to solve problems they need downtime for the kind of focused, introspective, nuanced thinking required to solve problems.
Our (and I'm not just talking about the US's) problem right now is that we are living in/with/through a perfect storm of societal, environmental and global problems that -- due to the the 24/7/365 "news" cycle -- prevents us (in some cases, I suspect it paralyzes us) from being able to seek out the very thing that would help us to best address that perfect storm.
Thank you! This very much speaks to my experience. Over the past year in particular I've been stepped up my own practice of silence, solitude and stillness. It's a great mystery to me how the practice of meditation seems to be correlated with my finding courage to speak up, particularly in spaces related to justice work. The more I grow in inner silence, the easier it is to speak into the silence!
It's always interesting to see what bubbles up, what associations I make as I read your writing. Today it was Jesus' silence before Pilate (Matthew 27) and before Herod (Luke 23). Sometimes silence speaks truth to power. Sometimes silence is very loud.
Is The Cottage where you write?
This was inspired and so helpful! I struggle often with when to speak up or out, and when to keep silent. Much silence is brought about by fear. Fear of being wrong or making others who matter disapprove. Fear of feeling foolish. Thank you for giving me a little more perspective and courage, both in the silence and in the words.
Thank you so very much. You have a way of articulating what I am feeling, but do not possess the gift you have to describe the emotions. I am choking in the silence of our Congressional leaders. I can not reconcile in my heart the inability to discern facts. I am reading the Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. It feels to me like the devil is all around us....In the violence, the division, the "keeping them away from the facts". It is a very interesting yet troubling book during this time in our world.
YES! The Buddhist's teachings......be still
I think it was Edward Deming (spelling?) who said (and I'm paraphrasing, not quoting) that if people want to solve problems they need downtime for the kind of focused, introspective, nuanced thinking required to solve problems.
Our (and I'm not just talking about the US's) problem right now is that we are living in/with/through a perfect storm of societal, environmental and global problems that -- due to the the 24/7/365 "news" cycle -- prevents us (in some cases, I suspect it paralyzes us) from being able to seek out the very thing that would help us to best address that perfect storm.
Thank you! This very much speaks to my experience. Over the past year in particular I've been stepped up my own practice of silence, solitude and stillness. It's a great mystery to me how the practice of meditation seems to be correlated with my finding courage to speak up, particularly in spaces related to justice work. The more I grow in inner silence, the easier it is to speak into the silence!
We all need the silence that comes with contemplation now. There has been too much noise assaulting us.
“Be still and know that I am God.”
How interesting and appropriate that the words SILENT and LISTEN contain the same letters.
It's always interesting to see what bubbles up, what associations I make as I read your writing. Today it was Jesus' silence before Pilate (Matthew 27) and before Herod (Luke 23). Sometimes silence speaks truth to power. Sometimes silence is very loud.