Listening in the Silence

"Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening ... when you'd have preferred to talk." - D.J. Kaufman

'My son, (daughter, child,) pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight" Proverbs 5:1

Learning to listen comes easy for some...for others it's a lifetime discipline. When we listen we gain heart insights and wisdom..."Be still and know that I am God." Sometimes, even the silence speaks.

There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city.

There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same.

There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt.

There is the silence of peace, the silence of rest, the silence of waiting.

There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of someone, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak.

Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay.

Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.

In the stillness, in the silence, if we listen...we may hear the echos of dreams yet to come...of imagination yet to be realized...of a deep calling...of those who are crying out to be heard...

if we listen we may hear the heart of others...we may hear the very words of God and gain wisdom.

Embracing the journey...learning to listen...even in the silences...