Practicing Silence and Solitude

For nearly 15 years, once a month I have gone into the mountains to practice the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude.  I learned this first from my mentor, Bob, in 2001 and practised this monthly with him from 2001-2005.... and then it was reinforced by my friend Jay who did this with me for nearly a decade.  My literary mentor, Brennan Manning once wrote: 

…it takes time for me to be still, to come to that place of inner quiet.  Stillness is more than silence and it is beyond solitude.  Interior stillness is too deep for words.  Unhampered by self-consciousness, our attention is focused entirely on God and His love.

I have found that once a month, if I practice stillness....I connect with Jesus in profound ways.

Last month I took my son, Noah, to the mountains with me to learn this discipline.  I wonder if one day he will will answer Jesus’ invitation to him to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31).  I'm trying to teach my kids this art in a world filled with busyness, media, marketing, and productivity.

My former professor Eugene Peterson once wrote, 

Spirituality means, among other things, taking ourselves seriously. It means going against the cultural stream in which we are incessantly trivialized to the menial status of producers, and performers, constantly depersonalized behind the labels of our degrees or our salaries. But there is far more to us than our usefulness and our reputation, where we’ve been and who we know; there is the unique, irreproducible, eternal, image-of-God me. A vigorous assertion of personal dignity is foundation to spirituality.

I have discovered that silence and solitude are a means to discover my "made-in-God's-image-ness".  So, the last Friday of every month I take a half-day to practice what Emily Dickinson calls "Renunciation–the piercing virtue"....rejecting my deep seeded compulsions for productivity, efficiency, self-promotion, and self-direction.

These are good days. 

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Daddy daughter dates make me smile

We went for some silence and solitude this morning in Lynn Canyon.  We took a college student with us....and then all split up, hoping to discover and be discovered by God.  I was able to take Elizabeth....and so I was only mostly silent and never alone....but interestingly enough, I feel like we both met God.  

Richard Foster, in his book Celebration of Discipline writes that "...silence is intimately related to trust."

I need that.  More silence - more trust.

And in another place, he reminds us that, “Like Jesus, we must go away from people so that we can be truly present when we are with them.” 

I need that too.  Being more present to my family and friends.

The trails were empty and the lake stunningly quiet and peaceful.

We spent an hour sitting and listening.

Sometimes Elizabeth would get stir crazy....and so I would walk a little further to calm her.

One day she'll understand who we were there to meet...but for now, she was content to be with me

...and that makes this morning worth it.