The Sound of Silence

Simon and Garfunkel aside, the sound of silence is not always a "sound" we are comfortable with.

Some of us may find ourselves yearning desperately for a bit of silence when our days and hours are filled with tweets, texts, emails, chats, phone calls, conversations, classroom lectures, TV, spotify, sirius xm ... you name it.  Silence sometimes is hard to come by and some of us crave a time when it would all just stop.

While for others of us, we find that silence becomes a reminder of loss, absence, loneliness and we do whatever we can to avoid the silence.  We may have had bad experiences with silence, having our voices unheard or rejected.  Or maybe we are afraid to stop and listen to the silence.

And yet, silence can become a way in which we "make space" for other things to happen - to see things more clearly, to listen for clarity in the midst of chaos, ultimately in the silence to make space for God.

So at PCC over the next weeks leading up to Lent, I am inviting our members and friends to join me in exploring the "Sound of Our Own Silence" through a 30-day Silent Retreat. No, it's not 30 days of total silence.  It's a commitment to spend 30 days exploring our relationship with silence ... and yes, practicing a bit of silence along the way.  This is a retreat designed by Tracey Marx at www.scriptureecho.com ... and I'm looking forward to this journey with a variety of other people - all doing the retreat wherever they are, at their own pace. Over the next 6 weeks we'll share some of our insights from along the way on this blog, and what we're learning about the Sound of Silence.