Sunday, August 3, 2008

Life's greatest teacher


I will be having some oral surgery in a couple of months and I chose my surgeon by trying to find one who does not have music playing in the waiting room or the treatment room. (I will be awake for the procedure.) Amazingly, I found one. When I went for my consult I felt cradled and soothed by the peaceful silence. It's so unusual, I'm sorry to say. Most medical offices even have televisions these days.

We need to come reacquainted with silence. Here's why we don't:

Silence frightens us because it is silence that brings us face to face with ourselves. Silence is a very perilous part of life. It tells us what we’re obsessing about. Silence reminds us of what we have not resolved within ourselves. Silence shows to us the underside of ourselves, from which there is no escape, which no amount of cosmetics can hide, that no amount of money or titles or power can possibly cure. Silence leaves us with only ourselves for company. Silence is, in other words, life’s greatest teacher. It shows us what we have yet to become, and how much we still lack to become it.

-- Sister Joan Chittister

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