When there are a teenager, an 8-yr old and 22-month old, all boys, in the house, visiting, it doesn’t appear that there would be much silence. But, if you listen between the cartoons, the light sabers swirling around, the guitar, drum and football floating through the air, the love that flows constitutes silence. It’s the feeling that all is right with the world and it comes with children in different shapes and sounds.

It seems like I’ve been writing about family and children more in my last few posts (see Making Memories and Jokes, Family and Fun). It’s the invisible force I feel that is ever present when I focus on family and loved ones. Yes, we go through the everyday routine of chores, jobs, errands but what flows in the background, just as the music between the notes, is the essence of life. You learn as you get older having passed some of the trials and witnessed the highs and lows that life gets sweeter and more precious with each passing day. You try not to take for granted the moments of every fleeting day.

So, where is this silence? It never leaves even when all the noise commands attention. It’s the same with spirituality and God’s presence. Going through each day is demanding with the thousands of thoughts to sort through and the physical interactions no wonder silence and spiritual essence is so hard to detect. You’re focus is being pulled in every direction saying, “Pay attention to me – No, pay attention to me.” What do you listen to? You have to choose. You can feel it if you’re aware of it while there are distractions all around. You have to consciously look for it and it will present itself to you.

Have you been up late at night and listened to the silence between the hours of midnight and 3:00 am. It’s different somehow. There’s a hush where it seems that all the world is in slumber. If you’re up in the mountains or out in the woods it’s a time where you hear the wildlife moving around. You might hear an occasional dog bark or the snorting of a horse. Or, if it’s snowing, you can hear the snow as it drifts down and lands on the ground. You feel a deeper connection to the world somehow.

Children, while they may be a distraction with play and noise, have a pure innocence that ushers in, believe it or not, the essence of silence and love. As it says, in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God…” When we can quiet ourselves and be still, we can know there is a God and when we can’t be quiet and the silence seems distant feel the peace, feel the essence of silence as it hums in the background. Soon you will be able to bring it forward.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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