One Second of Silence

"Imagination is everything.

It is the preview of Life's coming attractions."

Albert Einstein

     One ordinary year is 31,536,000 seconds; a series of future memories, one moment at a time. My to-do list seems to expand and shrink like the kitchen sponge while the inside of my head feels like a power ball container- thoughts, ideas, memories all tumbling and rolling 'round- which ones will fall out, I wonder. Will they be a winner?


     My friend, Tom Sullivan, sends me books. I just finished the latest- In the Heart of the Desert, The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers by John Chryssavgis. In Conclusion, the author writes,

"Of course, the flight to the desert will not always be as radical as that practiced by the elders of early Christian Egypt. The ways of detachment, the moments of departure may be insignificant opportunities, ones that we may even miss if we are not attentive: a quiet moment alone; a quiet moment in the presence of a friend; a walk alone; a quiet time of camping, swimming or fishing; a time of reflection in a silent corner; a longer drive; a long wait during a short drive, when we are caught in traffic. We should enter those moments of stillness and understand them. We should also speak from those moments of silence and act out of them. We are what we do with that stillness and silence."

     

     The year goes on and I don't want to miss a second.