A silent exploration of silence

I may devote these Sunday posts to “day of rest” reflections in general, and Quaker reflections in particular.

I always come away from our Sunday morning’s hour of silent worship with something I want to share.

This morning, in the silence, I found myself exploring the phrase “the depths of silence.”

For some reason, our culture assigns “depth” to silence.

I’m not sure why. Why not breadth or height?

Indeed, why must silence have any single dimension at all? Why not free silence from three or even four dimensions?

But exploring the depth of silence did lead me to consider “digging deeper” into the silence of my worship.

Is there a silence beneath silence? Another deeper layer of silence?

So often my silence is full of voices. So it really isn't silence at all even though no one in the meeting room is speaking. These are my own inner voices rushing to fill the void.

I need a much deeper silence. Or is it higher silence? Or a broader silence? Or just a greater silence — a silent silence?

The more I got into it — deeper, wider, greater — the more I realized that silence is truly a manifestation of an infinite presence.

Some might choose to call it "God," but the silence was telling me that God has no-name.

All creation started with — still starts with — silence.