visible silence{...}

Your favorite Lunchbox Buddies partook in a rejuvenating excursion last weekend.  Earlier this summer, we contemplated taking a weekend trip to a monastery.  We shared a definite desire to join others in a tangibly sacred way of life.  After scheduling conflicts, we decided to investigate planning our own getaway.  Through the generosity of a co-worker, we escaped to a lake cabin, which offered the perfect back drop for our own silent retreat.  Packing the necessities (tooth brush...check, bug spray...check, art supplies and books to read...check, snacks...double check!), we headed off in pursuit of stillness.

Whether you are able to get away for the weekend or just connect with an internal space to be still, there is a need to intentionally bring the sacred into our daily living, because, as Henri Nouwen puts it best in Out of Solitude, "Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our lives are in danger.  Somewhere we know that without silence words lose their meaning, that without listening speaking no longer heals, that without distance closeness cannot cure.  Somewhere we know that without a lonely place our actions quickly become empty gestures.  The careful balance between silence and words, withdrawal and involvement, distance and closeness, solitude and community forms the basis of the Christian life and should therefor be the subject of our most personal attention."