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You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more →
Ode to Silence
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You, silence,
are the ground on which we build
the fragile sandcastles of our every spoken word. Read more →
Silence
December 2020
The songs of the guardians of silence are the most powerful. —Joy Harjo
Articles
Use Your Inside Voice
In a congregation I once served was a man who’d been there many years—not a noisy person, but one who was pretty loud in his dislike of silence in the Sunday service. Read more »
Silence as a Spiritual Tool
Silence is the tool that brings us back from fragmentation into wholeness. Read more »
Sanctuaries of Silence
Three sanctuaries of silence come to mind as I think about creating more space for silence in my life. Read more »
Profound Silence
The day Gerry and I moved to Neenah from Milwaukee was a long, exhausting one. Read more »
Silence
When I was a child I used to fear the silence. One of the tortures I endured was being thrown into a small closet with no light, and being left there for days at a time. Read more »
Dark of Winter
Where I live, December marks the beginning of winter. And in the Hudson Valley of New York, those winters are often cold, silent, and dark. Read more »
Moments of Silence
During my first year living in Seattle, I heard a news report of a woman being arrested for throwing a frozen chicken out her apartment in the middle of a crowd of runners in a 5K race. Read more »
Universal Truths
As we head into the depths of winter I am always reminded of that in other parts of the world, people are experiencing the height of summer. Read more »
REsources for Living
Let all mortal flesh keep silence…begins an ancient hymn that is still a popular Christmas carol. Read more »
A Fond Goodbye
Close to 20 years ago Rev. Jane Rzepka invited me to join the CLF team as the editor of Quest. Read more »
Audio Resources
You can listen to audio recordings of Quest Monthly, read back issues or get electronic versions of the text to share with friends (and much more) at questformeaning.org Read more »
Ode to Silence
You, silence, are the ground on which we build the fragile sandcastles of our every spoken word. Read more »
Bodhidharma Proposes to the Wall
Bodhidharma sat there,
they say, nine years, but
you know how they talk.
Bodhidharma there to
wonder why he thinks
this could be different
from that. To wonder
what it might have been
we think differentiates
one depth from another.
Isn’t that the secret?
Bodhidharma said
to the wall. You
won’t know your
self until you stop
deceiving yourself,
Bodhidharma said
to the wall. Sounds
sound, until the self-
referentials begin
to sink in. Then
words mumble. Slow.
Into the nothing that is
the walls around.
