A Call to Silence

Lately I've got myself thinking one question. Pondering one inevitable thought, one that's unavoidable.

Why haven't I stopped?

Stopped to breathe for just 10 seconds.

Stopped to look up from my phone and look at the people staring back at me.

Stopped to see the sky above me as I walk to class instead of my feet at the ground.

Stopped myself before saying something I would regret or didn't mean.

Stopped to love someone a little bit better the next time.

Stopped to answer the truth about my day rather than "it's good".

Stopped to compliment.

Stopped to pray in silence.

Stopped for just one moment as I hold the Eucharist in my hands to adore.

Stopped.

Why is it so hard to stop sometimes?

And this got me thinking. I began to think about the noise of the world and how noise can be our greatest enemy. How can we be enthralled into a deeper relationship with ourselves and with Christ when music is blaring and people are fighting and thoughts enter our minds that aren't real or true or even us?

And that's the thing, has this world completely and utterly lost itself because the people inhabited on it are losing themselves too to the noise of the world? To the lies of the sounds that our televisions spit back at us on how to be or look or feel? To the noise of the drama that surrounds our households or roommates or friends? To the deceiving voice of Satan penetrating our minds with empty promises and superficial, fleeting compliments?

I don't know about you, but I am tired of being in constant constancy.

We were created to feel and be more than just robots. To experience a life that is not so lifeless. To open our eyes wide to see, to hear clearer, to touch passionately, to smell the depths of our surroundings, and taste creativity just a little more. I'm only cheating myself out of life when all I do is fill in the mark to check off my list for the day. And it's only my fault if that day was not fulfilling... or good.

It's my own fault if the Author of this vibrant earth has placed me before His masterpiece and I haven't relished in admiring His art. I fail at acknowledging His artistic creativity, His expressions, His depth. His love. His seamless graces. And if I cannot admire Art, how can I expect to follow my own desires and passions, the ones that bubble inside with excitement?

If I cannot just stop to be in divine relationship with The Artist, how can I even expect to stop to be in intentional relationship with others?

Let us feel deeper and be the artists to the robots that are being consumed to this ever-seeming monotonous world. Inspire others with the poetry of your fiery desires. Consume others in it. All you have to do is "go into yourself" where the sounds of silence consume you. Where deep contemplation stirs and life begins. Ideas flourish. Love expounds, where goose bumps trickle your spine, and maybe, just maybe, where the Holy Spirit moves those tears to feel.

I'll leave you with this: I have been reading a compilation of letters that a famous 19th century German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, wrote in correspondence to an up-and-coming poet seeking for Rilke's counsel in poetry (yes I am a nerd).

In Letters to A Young Poet Rilke reminds me of stopping to encounter silence, for intentionality, for "going into myself" as he prophetically has suggested to this aspiring artist. And maybe Rilke is right about the mystery of the quiet.

"If you trust in Nature, in what is simple in Nature, in the small Things that hardly anyone sees and that can so suddenly become huge, immeasurable; if you have this love for what is humble and try very simply, as someone who serves, to win the confidence of what seems poor: then everything will become easier for you, more coherent and somehow more reconciling, not in your conscious mind perhaps, which stays behind, astonished, but in your innermost awareness, awakeness, and knowledge," (Letter 4).

Indulge in silence. Indulge in the Master of Art. Indulge in the stopping. Indulge in the poetry you offer as an aspiring artist.

The world is waiting.

#seamlessgrace #acalltosilence #Rainermariarilke #betheartist