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Honoring the Silence
Sometimes
There Are No Limits
A State of Grace
Paradox
A Chosen Silence
Knowing the Self
Keeping Silence
The Silent Space Within
The Simple Silence
This World
The Fruit of the Spirit
Wordless Understanding
Silence
Meditation on Inner Peace
Feedback
Honoring the SilenceThose who honor your willingness to just be are rare.
How often do you honor the silence of others?
The Desiderata says, "Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence."
We see silence as a pocket in which to stuff words.
We see silence as a backdrop for our personalities.
We see it as nothingness; in that we are right.
Nothingness is the most powerful force in the universe.
There is a way to test this. Stay with nothingness and ask yourself if your energy is increasing or decreasing.
Increasing silence is increasing energy. Letting go of words is salutary.
Just being should come more easily than it does, but there is a price to pay for it.
The price is reasonable; it is your pain.
When we have searched for God everywhere, leaving no stone unturned, we are forced to find Him in our own heart--a stony creek almost devoid of moisture. It was there that I began looking for my lost inner self. I found her walking along the creekbed, head bowed in pain.
I felt such empathy for her; I knew all that she had been through. I knew her from the inside out, for I was her. I called out to her and she looked right through me.
She doesn't recognize me, I realized in wonder. She is so lost in self-pity that she cannot see me waiting to give her a nod of encouragement. Yes, you can go on.
Finally, I bent down and picked up a smooth gray stone and skipped it into the shallow water. She raised her head and followed its arc. It ker-plunked into the creek and she drew her breath in. A bird tweetled in the trees and she smiled. She would be okay.
Sometimes that's all you can do for your soul.
There are no limits to the human soul. No impossibilities in infinity. No excuses. No hiding places. And yet we eat ice cream over the sink out of the carton.
There is no place where forgiveness is not accessible. Why do we condemn ourselves with the little word "enough." (I am not good enough.)
There is no place where God is not hiding in plain sight. And yet we wear blinders in order not to see Him.
There are no winds that do not carry God. And yet we say things like, "I am not sure in which direction I should be heading."
There are no scenarios that do not have God written in as a principle player, for if you leave Him out, He will write Himself back in. Maybe as a Hero...maybe as the antihero. He is all things.
There is no anger that does not have the light of God buried in its depths. The light is pouring in, down as well as up.
There is no sorrow in which God does not participate. Why would He not, when He created the eyes that shed your tears.
There are no failures that do not contain the seeds of enlightenment. They are messages about going a little further than we have gone before...or in a new direction.
There are no people for whom we should not pray. No one so low that he does not deserve our prayers.
There is no one inside of you that would not benefit from the love of the God within. Let them stand before you and be blessed by you.
There are no challenges which God cannot surmount. Why do you say that anything is too much for you?
There are no limits to the power of love and awareness. None.
Let me be in a state of grace that comes from being willing
to walk through the forest of frenzy that is within the geography of the mind.
Let me be in a state of grace that comes during the storm of suffering and abates only when I stop resisting.
Resist not when your mind disturbs you.
Resist not when your emotions ravage you.
Resist not when the body fails you.
Only be willing to walk on through that forest of the mind.
Shadows cannot touch you if you are willing to keep walking.
Storms cannot drench your surrendered spirit.
Grace will cloak you and see you through the dark night of the mind.
Grace will teach you all about the power of letting go, but you will only be taught when you are willing.
So be willing, that is all.
The mind is a place of division and can never contain paradox.
What is beyond me sustains me.
<>When Christ was hanging on the cross, he said to one of the two thieves, "This day you shall be with Me in paradise."
He could just as well have said, "This day you shall be with Me in paradox."It is where Rumi lived...."I've lived too long where I can be reached."
True teachers always point us to this location.
There are many fingers pointing to paradox. We latch onto the fingers and start calling them fingerji or finger-san.
It would be silly if it weren't so serious.
Keep silence just as you would keep your house.
Sweep out words and thoughts with the broom of intention.
Tidy up your heartâs home with resolution.
After all, the silence is sacred.
Keep silence just as you would keep your children.
With love and affection tend its birth.
Mark the doorframe of your heart as it grows.
This is a time of rejoicing.... for the prodigal mind
Has come home to silence.
There is a land of light within
Unexplored acres of awareness
Untouched by the multitudes
No vines of animosity grow here.
This land is rife with reality
Inviting us to experience the all that we are
Welcoming us yet warning us
No separation is allowed and yet there is no judgement
Just the pure silence that we know to be the answer to all questions.
Come sit in the simple silence.
Complexity has no place here.
Multiplicity is meaningless.
The path to silence may be meandering or straight
Once there, one finds the peace of God that sings.
Observing one's own heart is a silent process
In which the observer dies on the cross of noise.
The resurrection is assured, but what rises can never be known
How can the all be known by the part?
Come sit in the simple silence now.
Tomorrow you will be there waiting eagerly for what
you know to be yourself.
I am learning how to walk through this world
You just keep going until you reach the other side
of every opinion
Every insult, every crisis, every sorrow.
You just keep walking into the wind of whatever is hurting you
You just say, "Dear God, I am willing to walk with you no matter what."
I am learning how to accept defeat in this world.
Defeat is not disgusting if you honor your walk.
I am learning how to step softly in the noise of this world.
You just put one decision in front of another until you reach the silence.
I am learning how to love in this world.
You just keep loving until you reach the great secret...
You are love and not the world. You are truth and not illusion.
You are safe when you walk with God through this world.
Today I chose silence.
Immersed in the misery of myself, I chose silence.
Sinking in suffering, I chose it.
Wallowing in self-pity, I opted for it.
Silence, I said, I need you as much as I need air.
Cliched as it was, the silence honored my cry.
It moved me back into alignment.
It adjusted my attitude and calibrated my
consciousness.It took the pings out of my personality
And oiled my gears of gratitude.
Shifting into gratitude, I flowed into the moment.
All volumes written about knowing the Self have been read.
The tapes have been listened to.
The popularizers have appeared on Oprah and Larry and done their thing.
Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc. have seen them go to number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
They have taken your money and your time.
But did they get your heart?
The fruit of the spirit is easily digested,
love, joy and peace are nourishing to the stomach
as is surrender
the heart of the body needs the heart of the spirit
milk of human kindness, manna of mercy
the body grows on grace
and matures into meaning
the fruit of the spirit is easily accepted
leading to a stronger walk and a gentler step
the body of man needs the food of fellowship
But without this silent nourishment
We will never be strong enough to walk alone.
There is an energy available to each of us as we sit in the silence. It is unified and undefined.
It is just as you are.
Amazingly, you can be filled with anger and pain, but if you will sit with it, wordless understanding arises of itself. It is a miraculous mirror.
This silent acceptance is what leads you beside the still waters of yourself. It has the power to purify all wrong thoughts and emotions, but in only one way--the way of acceptance.
So I would make a suggestion. Sit down with your inner noise and inner pain and accept that they will continue to go on. The mirror is just held up to them and you look.
The looking is unhooking you from them. Pure seeing is freeing you from reactivity, which is a form of resistance.
The silence is beginning to heal you, as you do nothing but look into the mirror.
What is this wordless understanding but non-resistance?
Non-resistance does not contain a single word and that is why it can heal you in the wink of an eye.
It isnât peace at any price. It is peace beyond price....and it is yours now.
Be wordless and you will be worldless and filled with inner wisdom and silence.
Silence is the thing that sings
in the middle of the morass of noise.
Silence is the One that witnesses cacaphony
and brings you home to honesty and humility.
Silence is the solvent of stridency
in the moment of your misery.
It asks nothing of you.
If silence should arise within your heart,
it has come from the depths of your desire for God.
Honor silence as you would honor a prophet of old
And you will become new.
Comments, suggestions and questions: E-mail: Vicki Woodyard
©Vicki Woodyard 2006 All rights reserved
