Can we see stillness? hear silence?
Oh, what a welcome respite the recent “snow day” was for some. Particularly the ones whose days are hustle and bustle. Whose commutes are honking and merging. Who arrive home each evening exhausted from the effort put forth in the day just filed in the “done” column.
I know and love such a one. She enjoyed this day in her quiet spot, watching the silence and breathing in the stillness. She even took a moment to think of me and snapped me a photo to share the moment’s peace.
Don’t think you can see the snow actually falling but the silence “shows.”
How do we see the stillness? Is it the same as hearing the silence?
Stillness is absence of movement. How can I know what isn’t?
Silence is absence of sound. How can I know what isn’t?
Funny how a snapshot stops, for a moment, the flicker of flame and the flutter of snow. I know they are moving. How? By the bend of the light. Its reaching and grasping for air. By the blur in the distance, briefly obscured by the wet lattice of flakes.
I know the movement by the evidence of it’s presence. It lets me see it, teases me to hear it. It calls me to see and to hear with senses different from those I usually trust.
Stillness…
Silence…
Stops me to hear…
“There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.” ~ Psalm 46: 4-6
Though nations roar and kingdoms crash, there is a place that is Holy. Can we see it? Can we hear it?
Posted on March 8, 2013, in Body, Deeper Sensation and tagged candle, flame, God, hearing, Light, Peace, psalms, senses, sight, snow, sound, Spirit. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
The Kinesthetic Christian 
May not hear or see it but I can feel it, and feels so nice!
Just something that stood out to me in that verse…”He will help me at the BREAK of day.”
I have always assumed that verse was referring to the “DAWN” of the day. But when I read it in context of your post, what stood out to me was…the silence. the pause. the BREAK.
He can’t “help us” as easily when we are rushing around like crazy. He helps when we take a break.
Love this thought. Thank you.
Thanks Hiddin. When exactly does the dawn break? Is it a moment when light wasn’t and then is? I had a teacher in a workshop once use that analogy when discussing whether “true” faith was an “all at once” phenomenon or whether it took its time in coming. He said it was like the dawn. You know it was dark and now it is surely light. Of course, me and God went running around the lake the lake the next morning. There are street lamps over a vehicular bridge and their operation is light sensitive. I happened to be crossing just as the lamps switched off their nighttime illumination – the “moment of dawn break” that day was 7:03am. Sometimes I think God even has a sense of humor with us concrete thinkers!