The Art of Silence - Casey, Hillesum & O'Donohue

We all need to learn the art of silence, to still the
clamor that comes from within as well as securing
for ourselves a zone where outward noise is hushed.
Above all we need to teach ourselves to become more
silent, because it is through an undisciplined tongue
that much of our personal and social disturbances
comes.  In a world where communication is huge,
it takes a fair amount of resolution to create for ourself
a sphere of silence, in which external urgencies are
put on hold and words are weighed.  We will never have
a listening attitude to life unless we spend time listening.
That means we stop engaging in the consciousness-absorbing
activities and start creating periods of silence and solitude.

Michael Casey
From: Strangers to the City
via No Mind's Land

~

Words should simply emphasize the silence,
with much space around a few words;
not empty, but inspired space.
The few great things that matter in life
can be said in a few words.

Brush in a few words against a wordless background,
to describe the silence, and the stillness and to inspire
them.  What matters is the right relationship between
words and wordlessness, the wordlessness in which
 much happens than in all the words one can string
together.  It's not some vague and incomprehensible
silence, for silence too must have contours and form.
All that words should do is to lend the silence form
and contours...

Etty Hillesum
Jewish Mystic of the Holocaust
From: An Interrupted Life 

~

Silence is the sister of the divine.
Silence is a great friend of the soul; it unveils the riches
of solitude.  It is difficult to reach that quality of inner
silence.  But if you trust in your own solitude
everything will be revealed to you,
as silence discloses the hidden depths.

John O'Donohue
From: Anam Cara 

via The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Yours Truly :)

no - not sleeping
resting in The Silence...

Hubby snapped the picture...
He said I looked peaceful :)