The sacred silence....

Looks like we'll get a chance to break out the cross country skies today cuz man, the snow is pouring out of the sky.  As I've noted before, a quiet descends upon the region in a storm like this: not only are there fewer people out on the roads, but sounds are muffled and muted. A  gentleness fills the air in a unique way so that for a few hours it is almost silent.  Inhabited and still alive, mind you ~ not isolated or deserted ~ but more like sitting together with others for Taize or Centering Prayer.  There is life pulsating in the silence, but it is experience rather than stated out loud.

This sacred silence is sometimes like worship.  Eugene Peterson has noted that "worship does not satisfy our hunger for God ~ it whets our appetite. Our need for God is not taken care of by engaging in worship ~ it deepens. It overflows the hour and permeates the week. The need is expressed in a desire for peace and security. Our everyday needs are changed by the act of worship.

We are no longer living from hand to mouth, greedily scrambling through the human rat race to make the best we can out of a mean existence. Our basic needs suddenly become worthy of the dignity of creatures made in the image of God: peace and security. The words shalom and shalvah play on the sounds in Jerusalem ~ jerushalom ~ the place of worship."

Without a time in silence ~ without the embrace of the wild ~ without a walk in the woods I feel agitated and confined by worship.  So, it is off to the wetlands to feel the wind and the wet, to fall on my ass repeatedly (I am not a good cross country skier) and to soak up the silence.  And having been so fed, I will then be hungry for God in worship, too.

Later that same day...

Well, we got out into the sweet and sacred silence, but without the skiis as there was just too much snow.  Looks like about a foot has fallen since this morning, but it is magical.  Even our old dog, Casie, seemed to relish the trek. I give thanks this Sabbath for the silence and beauty, the sacred love of the Lord and a life that gives me the chance to be embraced by it all.

Now maybe a little red wine before I cook up some rainbow trout and wild rice.