Silence, Story, Song

In the midst of the business of our lives, it is critically important that we take the time to enter into silence. 

In quiet and solitude, we can listen deeply to the still small voice within that invites us to live out of our deepest desires and truth. 

In quiet and solitude, we come to see and know more fully our story as it speaks to the stories of our sisters and brothers. 

In quiet and solitude, we hear the voice of the marginalized and oppressed and we know that voice to be connected somehow to our own. 

In quiet and solitude, we can come to understand that our hopes and dreams are bound up with the hopes and dreams of our sisters and brothers in greatest need. 

A mother of four was asked which of her children she loved the most.  The questioner expected her to say that she loved all of her children equally. She did not.  Without hesitation, she responded simply, "I love the one in greatest need the most."

And so it is in knowing our own great need, our own pain, our own suffering and struggles, that we are invited to love the most our sisters and brothers in greatest need and pain, those who are suffering and struggling the most. 

In quiet and solitude, each of our stories becomes a sacred song that we must sing. 

And in singing our song, we give others, especially those in greatest need, the freedom to sing theirs. 

A professor captured the essence and power of silence, story and song by presenting us with the image and paradigm of "The Joy/Pain Pendulum." She said that the experience of losing her brother and her father in the same year helped her realize a simple truth.  "My experience of loss and suffering," she said, "teaches me that the more deeply I allow myself, in quiet and solitude, to truly and deeply feel my story of pain, without running away from it or drowning it in addiction or escapism, the more deeply I am able to feel joy.  The more fully I am able to sing my sacred song." 

My wish and hope for you is that in quiet and solitude you come to more fully know your story of joy and pain to be integrally interwoven with the stories of our sisters and brothers in greatest need, and that this deep knowing liberates you to sing your sacred song and share it boldly and beautifully with others.