In one of my favorite essays, Thomas Merton asked his readers to imagine a person or group of people who, alone or together in a quiet place with no radio (Iphone, Internet, Texting), no background music, simply sitting for an hour and a half in silence.

In my imagination, the people do not speak or pray aloud.

They have no devices, books, or papers in their hands. They are not busy doing anything or anxious to do what they think they need to do at that moment.

In my idea of silence, they enter into themselves, not to think analytically or heavily, not to examine, organize, respond to, worry or plan.

Their goal is simple.

They want to gather themselves together in silence, integrate the different parts of themselves, face the truth and rediscover themselves in a peaceful but powerful unity of thought, will, understanding, and love that goes beyond words, beyond explanation, beyond description, and analysis, even beyond conscious thought and memory.

That person is now me; I am eternally grateful for the creative silence that keeps me grounded and helps me to understand the power of love, even if I often lose sight of it.

The feeling is something like the loved one can feel for a newborn child, or that the child loves for its mother without having language, or that some people have when they connect intensely and profoundly with a dog or other animal.

It is, in fact, a love beyond words.

It is a creative silence.

Once I trusted it, I realized that it cleans out the cobwebs, fears, distractions, anger, and resentment that filled my consciousness and washed away the clutter that fills and distracts our minds.

Maria discovered this same thing by herself; she didn’t need a prod from Thomas Merton. We can sometimes find this silence together. It feels to me like the purest form of love.

It is a kind of restoration, a way to see through the worries, anger, and confusion that often blinded me. I could see my troubles clearly, but I couldn’t see or understand myself.

I can rarely feel this kind of love for long outside of what I call creative silence. In that silence, I come face to face with who I am and who I wish to be.

What might prompt modern people to do such a thing as this?

I don’t have an answer. Our lives are being pulled in different directions – anger, money, hatred, grievance, and fear.

I know it’s not too late for me; I have to pause and enter my soul to nourish it.

I need to get away from the noise, tension, violence, and greed of modern life, at least for a while, at least for an hour every couple of days. I need to relax my mind and will and seek a blessed healing sense of inner unity and reconciliation.

This holds me together, gives me strength, and offers hope.

Often, when I look beyond my beautiful farm and life and absorb the outside world, I think our planet has gone insane.

Creative silence keeps me sane.

I need nothing but me and silence to get there.