ADIRDONACK PINES
Robert Trabold
Stately pines reaching to sky
deep blue that only
Adirondack Mountains can
paint.
Sun is clear - strong
tree branches reach out for
its
life giving nourishment.
Pines – sky – sun light
each a silence
broken only by gentle breeze
whistling through pine trees
breeze so peaceful – so soft
– adds to
silence of the woods.
So many years I walked - sat
among these stately pines.
Why do I come back?
I tell my friends I meet
Someone here.
Silence of Adirondack pines
echoes silence of God –
Absolute
my Beloved.
Being there is a walk in
mystery
mystery in the Adirondack
blue sky
also a presence
within me – at my center – at
my still point.
I rest in this mystery –
letting gentle breeze
touch me
soft kiss of Someone who
loves me.
Feel my breathing in and out
– pointing to
presence at my center.
Continue to look at blue sky
– soaring pines
let silence - beauty run over
me
inundate me – embrace me.
Say no words because in
silence of pines
my Beloved is wooing me.
Gentle call!
No words of mine fit the
situation
I sit in quiet - let it wash
over me.
Joy!
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APPRECIATION OF
SILENCE
Robert Trabold
The summer time may be a chance when we can come to
appreciate what silence is in our life. When we think and talk about silence,
it appears to us as a mysterious thing. In one sense, it is out of step with
our modern life. Many of us live in
these big cities and are busy and overwhelmed with activities. We have our life
of work, family, studies and education, etc. This fast pace is now faster with
the advent of the social media and the cell phones. We can be contacted
wherever we are and are pressurized to respond with texts and messages. So
silence is somewhat strange. It is
drowned out in the fast pace of living.
In the summer time, however, we may
have more opportunities to step out of this hectic pace of modern living. For
many of us in the temperate zone, the weather gets warmer and nature that has
been asleep in the winter comes alive and there are chances to be outside and enjoy
the beauties of the natural world. There may be a slackening of the pace of our
duties with vacation time and opportunities to be in our gardens or the
seashore or the mountains. These days then can be the advent of silence and
reflection on our life. For example, I am lucky to live near the Atlantic Ocean
and look forward spend time walking along the beaches and seashore. I have a
garden at home and enjoy in the summer the opportunity to sit outside in the
evening. I admire the loveliness of the summer flowers and feel the quiet of
the garden and nature. I cannot do this in the winter time because it is too
cold to sit outside.
So the summer can be a time of
silence and quiet and give us opportunities to grow in the contemplative
dimension of our life. It gives us a space to reflect on who we are, where we are
going in life and what are the goals and ultimate end of our living. So in
these moments of quiet and reflection, we become aware of silence and uncover new
riches for our human living. These spaces can be ones where we pull things
together in our life, see things in a new and deeper way. Silence then loses
some of sense of difference from our ordinary life and we realize it as a
necessary part of human living.
As contemplatives who meditate twice
a day in silence and repeat our mantra, it is an encounter with Someone who is
very important for us. In the silence of our prayer, we encounter a presence
who is mysterious and transcendent but who also wants to reveal Himself/Herself
to us. There is darkness in this encounter because we are meeting the divine.
Yet despite this darkness, we feel that the Lord is reaching out to us and
wants to enter a relationship of mutual love. Contrary to our feeling that
silence can be empty, it is rather full with an important meeting. John Main
mentions that in our meditation and contemplation, we meet the ground of our
being, the primordial Spirit around which we are to orientate our life. It is no
longer empty but now is filled with the presence of Someone with whom we
journey on earth. We are no longer torn between different ways of living which
the modern world presents to us. Some can be good, others detrimental to us. We
are meeting the Lord Jesus who takes us by the hand and leads us on earth and
hopefully to eternal life.
With the encounter with God in this
quiet time, silence loses some of it mystery and we become aware of its beauty
and depth. Quiet time may not be the most popular thing in modern living but in
our contemplative prayer, we have found a pearl of great value. John Main
mentions that we find the one who is the ground of our life, gives it meaning
and deep value. We do not let the many activities of our daily modern life
overwhelm us but now have an anchor to guide our living on earth. So it
behooves us to take advantage of the possible slowdown in our daily activities which
the summer and vacation time offer us and so enter more deeply into silence and
quiet time. This will enrich our life and help us continue on our contemplative
path.
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