Dear All of Us,
Well, from here in
Washington, DC
a good Monday Morning
to you whatever day
and time it is there.
As we get under way,
please permit reference to
personal experience
quickly becoming
ancient history.
As a boy way back there
in the 40's, I loved
going to Temple.
That's what our
parish church,
town library, and
art museum
were for me.
They were temples of
hushed wonder.
Entering them
was stepping into
silent sanctuaries of
mystery and wonder,
still zones
speaking goodness
to my young soul.
Those environments of
tranquil awe
awakened me
to the sacred center
of my own soul,
The Still Point
that is God.
Now, as a young boy
I certainly didn't
have words for it.
No matter.
The experience was
real and sacred
and still is more than
three quarters
of a century later.
Our spiritual lives,
at their freshest,
are a sacred and
beautiful blend of
inner and outer,
action and contemplation,
silence, saying, singing,
Just now, let's take
a touch of time
for the inner,
time to hear
the sounds of silence,
time to sense the sacred
in the wonder of
SILENT STILL
We slow soul it.
We soul sense it.
"Be still and know
that I am God."
Psalm 46:10
"I think 99 times
and find nothing.
I stop thinking,
swim in silence,
and truth
comes to me."
Albert Einstein
"The ego gets
what it wants
with words.
The soul finds
what it needs
in silence."
Author Unknown
Shared by Phillip Russo
"Cor ad cor loquitor."
(Heart speaks to heart.)
Francis de Sales
"In Silence there is eloquence.
Stop weaving and see how
the pattern improves."
Rumi
"It is better in prayer to have
a heart without words
than words without a heart."
Mahatma Gandhi
"For now she needs not think
of anybody. She could be herself,
by herself. And that was what now
she often felt the need of - to think;
well not even to think.
To be silent; to be alone.
All the being and the doing,
expansive, glittering, vocal,
evaporated; and one shrunk,
with a sense of solemnity,
to being oneself,
a wedge-shaped core
of darkness,
something invisible to others...
and this self having shed
its attachments was free
for the strangest adventures."
Virginia Woolf,
To the Lighthouse
It takes
SILENT STILL
to journey to our
deepest self, to
The Still Point
at our core,
the point where God
presents as us,
and is present to us.
Paradoxically our Still Point
is that from which all our
being and doing emanate.
Reality, us and all that is,
have vast ranges
of resonance.
Many most are in
a silent-subtle-still frequency.
We can only "hear" them
"soul-sense-see" them
in that zone of
SILENT STILL
There's such much varied
soundings-seeings-sensings in it.
We have so many "levels"
to us - ever deeper
than the immediacy
of our ear hear,
of our think soundings,
of our surface stir.
Sensing is energy sharing.
That energy is
way more than
a decibel count,
or concept captive,
or sense scurry.
It thins to fullness
ever going deeper.
"Deep calls unto deep"
Psalm 42:7
To take the call we need
channels free of surface static.
To hear deeply we need
deep still and silence.
To center in we need
SILENT STILL
That starts by turning down
the volume of static
on the surface of our living -
rush, stress, being over active,
over committed hurry,
too much media noise and "news."
Those things blitz our psyche
and block access to
SILENT STILL
We slow and steady
the frenzy and the frenetic.
We make sure to regularly
get in our canoe and go out
on the lake of tranquility.
The Spirit may beckon us
to the fields, to a chapel,
to the woods, to an art museum,
to the quiet of our porch
or our bedroom.
There's a divine realm
beyond thought and word,
beyond busy,
be that inner or outer.
Getting there is simple
SILENT STILL
Now it's time for me to
be just that.
John Frank
******
Because I have a brain
that just doesn't click
like it used to,
I forgot to mention
in last week's posting
that the illustration about
the hitch hiker in Alaska
came, I think, from
The Book Of Awakenings
by Mark Nepo, MJF Books,
New York.
Gotta tell you,
this old age stage
is something else!
As my feet shuffle
and my brain flubs
my spirit says:
"Who cares?
The peace and
soul mellow
are so wonderful!!"
******
Every good wish
and blessing
to our Jewish
sisters and brothers
during these
High Holy Days.
SHALOM
******
A HAPPY HEARTED
WECOME
TO US ALL.
This week a special
"Hi 5"
to those of us from
Russia and Turkey.
******
Please share
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
with friends and associates.
ONLINE POSTING
Wednesdays before dinner
(because I want to enjoy dinner
and go to bed early)
east coast USA time
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
please consider bookmarking
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Fridays
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BLOG ARCHIVE
access to all past postings
right column online format
******
The Spirit speaks so clearly in
The Sounds of Silence
******
Looking forward to seeing
you next week.
******
Hello!
So, those of us
"Ancient of days"
well remember going
to the local library
as kids back in
a distinctly different era.
It was like entering
this sacred space, a
Temple of Wonder.
It was sort of like
going to church.
