The Sanctuary of Silence

Last week myself and a dear friend took ourselves off for a day of silent walking with The British Pilgrimage Trust, following the route taken by many along part of The Pilgrims way from Chilham to Canterbury. 

In a world of constant stimulation the idea of a day of silence can feel daunting to some, but for many, myself included, it feels like medicine.

I remember day one of my first silent meditation retreat many years ago. I was quite scared of how silence would feel. What would life be like if all I had to accompany myself were the thoughts in my head?

I remember the moment I walked into the retreat center grounds once silence began and something deep within me said "I've been waiting my whole life for this". 

Don't get me wrong, I love connections and conversations. I love words and the power they hold, but there is something so precious about giving ourselves time to drop beneath them. Not needing to fill in gaps, offer an explanation or create a narrative.Space somehow opens up to simply be with our experience.

Over time our mode shifts from output to input, from talking to listening, from doing to being.

 There can be something surprisingly comforting about being silent within a group setting, in community, appreciating and sharing, without the need for communicating. And there felt something so precious about doing so in nature, at times walking, others pausing, and at one point lying on the grass listening to the birds singing while watching the clouds go by (I can't remember the last time I did that!). Nature seems to take its right place as the wise teacher, if we only pause to listen. 

As I walked I remembered this poem that some of you will have heard me read in workshops:  

Silent Places by Allene Rasmussen Nichols

I need those silent places

within and without

where I can feel my body

expand and contract

with the breath that sustains me

and where  the softness of

the pillow under my hands

is as important as the

web of the wider world

with its bullying and braying governments

and angry honking cars

and endless noise.